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in  2010  with  funding  from 
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RIALLARO 

THE  ARCHIPELAGO  OF 
EXILES 


BY 

GODFREY  SWEVEN 


G.  P 

PUTNAM'S 

SONS 

NEW 

YORK   AND   LONDON 

^bc 

Iknickcxbochcv 

1901 

press 

Copyright,  igoi 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


TEbc  *n(cft<r()och?r  press,  'Hew  Borft 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introduction.    The  Mysterious  Shot  .       .  i 

I. — Resurrections 8 

II.— R1A1.LAR0 15 

III. — Landing 22 

IV.— The  Language 26 

V. — A1.E0FANIAN  Society  and  Rewgion        .       .  35 

VI.— Ai^eofanian  Devotion  to  Truth     •        .        •  39 

VII.— Sociae  Customs 52 

VIII.— Abstinence 58 

IX.— The  Organisation  of  Repute  ....  68 

X.— The  Church  and  Journalism  ....  76 

XI.— The  Bureau  of  Fame 99 

XII.— Freedom  and  Revolution  .  .  .  .107 
XIII. — Imprisonment  and  Escape  .  .  .  .117 
XIV.— The  Voyage  to  Tirraearia      .        .        .        .122 

XV.— Tirraearia 139 

XVI.— Sneekape 146 

XVII.— The  Midnight  Ascent  and  Flight         .        .  177 

XVIII.— Meddla 190 

XIX.— WOTNEKST 199 

XX.— FOOLGAR 217 

XXI. — AWDYOO 237 

XXII.— Jabberoo 244 

XXIII.— VULPIA 251 

iii 


IV 


Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIV.— WiTUNGEN  AND  Adjacent  Isi^ands     .        .    255 

XXV.— Kloriole 267 

XXVI.— Swoonarie 286 

XXVII.— Feneralia 292 

XXVIII.— The  Voyage  AND  THE  Wreck      .        .        .297 

XXIX.— NooKOO 303 

XXX.— The  Voyage  to  Brooi,yi       ....    308 

XXXI.— Meskeeta 312 

XXXII.— CoxuRiA -320 

XXXIIL— Haciocram 328 

XXXIV.— Spectralia 332 

XXXV.— The  Voyage  Continued        ....    350 

XXXVI.— Broolyi .359 

XXXVII.— Noola 376 

Postscript 419 


RIALLARO 


RIALLARO 


INTRODUCTION 


D 


THE   MYSTERIOU.S  SHOT 

EAD,  for  a  ducat,  dead,"  roared  Somm,  as  he 
shouldered  his  gun  and  rushed  to  the  beach. 
Nothing  had  come  within  reach  of  shot  all  afternoon 
till,  in  the  thickening  twilight,  a  flash  of  broad  wings 
in  the  distance  awakened  our  camp.  "  A  wounded 
albatross,"  shouted  both  my  companions,  as  they 
peered  through  the  shuttling  grey  of  the  evening,  and 
watched  the  south  wind,  still  wild  with  the  force  of 
storm,  shepherd  some  baffled  creature  of  wings  up 
towards  our  nestlingrplace.  "  Some  still  stranger 
bird,"  I  thought,  as  we  seized  our  guns  and  ran  to  the 
edge  of  the  cliff.  The  sudden  descent  of  night  checked 
further  question  ;  and  as  the  winged  thing  gleamed 
along  the  face  of  the  precipice,  three  shots  echoed 
across  the  sound,  and,  in  a  lull  of  the  fitful  gusts,  we 
heard  a  dull  plunge  in  the  water  far  below. 

It  seemed  but  a  few  minutes  till  we  met  Somm  in 
the  rocky  hollow  that  was  the  harbour  for  our  boat  ; 
he  had  rowed  out  and  back,  and  was  leaning  over  some 


2  Riallaro 

dark  object  that  lay  in  the  stern.  Not  a  sign  of  feather 
or  anything  that  gleamed  was  there  about  it.  It  was 
the  form  of  a  human  being,  apparently  dead.  We  bore 
it  up  through  the  bush  with  the  tender  care  that  diggers 
are  wont  to  give  to  the  corpse  of  a  comrade.  Our 
burden  was  so  light  that  we  expected  to  look  upon  a 
thin,  emaciated  body.  But,  as  we  laid  it  in  the  flicker 
of  our  hut  fire,  we  were  amazed  to  see  the  rounded  form 
and  rudd}'  cheeks  of  the  dead  stranger. 

We  stripped  him  of  his  wrapping, — a  strange  muslin- 
like transparent  toga, — and  searched  for  the  gunshot 
wound.  Except  for  one  broad  bruise,  there  was  no 
mark  on  the  body.  And  then  it  began  to  dawn  upon 
us  that  this  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  flashing  wings, 
or  our  shots,  that  we  were  guiltless  of  human  blood. 
It  was  a  case  of  drowning,  but  not  yet  dead.  And  we 
set  to  work  to  draw  the  clogging  water  from  his  heart 
and  lungs.  Slowly  the  breath  began  to  come  and  the 
blood  to  circulate.  The  bosom  heaved  and  we  felt  our- 
selves in  the  presence  of  another  and  a  stranger  human 
soul.  What  he  was,  whence  he  came,  whirled  through 
our  minds  in  silence.  Faint  and  in  need  of  rest  he 
manifestly  was.  We  poured  some  stimulant  down  his 
throat  and  laid  him  on  one  of  our  rude  beds  of  manuka 
and  fern.  We  saw  him  fall  into  a  deep  and  healthy 
sleep.  And  dawn  was  alread}'-  threatening  the  east 
with  flickering  light  when  we  went  into  the  open  and 
drew  a  long,  sweet  breath. 

We  consulted  together  over  the  strange  occurrence, 
and  determined  to  search  the  fiord  for  traces  of  the 
winged  thing  that  flashed  out  at  our  shots.  Before  we 
had  gone  far,  we  found  a  pair  of  huge  fans  that  had 
drifted  into  one  of  the  frequent  channels  amongst  the 
rocks.     They  were  not  of  feathers,  but  of  some  strong, 


The  Mysterious  Shot  3 

transparent,  and  almost  weightless  material  that  did 
not  wilt  in  the  sun  or  the  wet.  We  lifted  them,  and 
there  hung  by  them  dragging  in  the  water  filmy  strings 
like  the  long  tentacles  of  a  medusa.  We  cut  them 
adrift,  and  bore  the  strange  wing-like  floats  up  to  our 
cliff.  Each  of  them  seemed  to  move  on  a  pivot  with 
ease,  and  almost  rose  on  the  gentle  breeze  into  which 
the  storm  had  now  died.  After  full  examination  of 
them,  we  laid  them  far  back  in  the  cavern,  which  we 
used  as  our  storehouse  and  larder,  and  thought  no  more 
about  them. 

We  cooked  and  ate  our  morning  meal,  and  then 
spread  out  over  the  bush  that  overlooked  the  waters  of 
the  sound,  forgetful  of  the  stranger  whom  we  had  left 
in  one  of  our  huts.  We  were  in  search  of  gold,  and, 
having  found  faint  traces  of  it  on  the  small,  fan-like 
beaches  that  intervalled  the  sheer  precipices  on  our 
side,  we  had  been  prospecting  several  months  for  the 
alluvial  pocket  or  the  reef  from  which  the  glittering 
specks  had  wandered  down.  The  following  week  we 
were  rewarded  with  success  ;  but,  as  we  have  no  desire 
to  have  our  noble  solitude  disturbed  by  the  noise  of  a 
frenzied,  gambling  crowd, — we  are  but  woodmen  and 
sealers  and  photographers  to  the  outside  world  when 
it  intrudes  in  the  shape  of  tourists, — I  shall  not  men- 
tion at  present  the  name  of  the  New  Zealand  fiord  in 
which  we  live. 

I  was  working  up  a  watercourse,  panning  the  sand 
and  dirt  that  lay  in  the  crevices  and  occasional  levels, 
at  times  startled  by  a  weka  that  impudently  slid  through 
the  undergrowth  and  eyed  me  close  at  hand,  or  bj-  the 
harsh  call  of  the  kea,  as  it  flew  from  some  resting-place 
and  circled  in  the  air.  Rudely  awakened  from  my  ab- 
sorption, I  looked  out  on  the  marvellous  scene  that  lay 


4  Riallaro 

at  my  feet  :  precipice  towered  over  precipice,  often 
forest-clad  from  base  to  summit.  Almost  sheer  below 
me  slept  the  waters  of  the  sound,  landlocked  as  if  it 
were  a  lake.  Only  the  indignant  cry  of  the  kea,  or  the 
weka's  raucous  whistle,  or  the  echo  of  a  distant  ava- 
lanche ever  broke  the  silence  of  this  solitary  land. 
Never  did  it  cease  to  throw  its  shadow  on  my  thoughts 
or  stir  their  sense  of  beauty  or  their  sadness. 

Absorbed  in  contemplation  of  its  sublimity,  I  sat  for 
a  moment  on  a  rock  that  rose  out  of  the  bush.  I 
almost  leapt  from  it,  startled;  a  voice,  unheralded,  fell 
"like  a  falling  star"  through  the  soundless  air.  I 
had  heard  no  footstep,  no  snap  of  trodden  twig  or  rustle 
of  reluctant  branch.  My  senses  were  so  thrilled  with 
the  sound  that  its  purport  shot  past  them.  There  at 
the  base  of  the  rock  stood  the  strangest  figure  that  ever 
met  my  eyes. 

It  was  the  sea-trove  we  had  left  sleeping  in  the  hut 
^a  small,  well-knit  frame  like  that  of  a  north-country 
Knglishman;  but  folded  though  it  was  in  the  slender 
gauzy  garment  we  had  unwound  from  it  the  night  be- 
fore, I  felt  conscious  of  a  radiance  that  seemed  to  rid  it 
of  its  opaque  substantiality;  it  was  as  if  lit  from  within  ; 
the  face  was  luminous  and  clear,  like  the  star-limpid 
waters  of  the  fiord  at  night.  My  eyes  were  drawn  to 
search  the  depths;  yet  the  veil  of  flesh  and  blood  still 
hid  all  but  the  aurora-like  flashings  of  thought  and 
feeling  that  swept  in  and  out  across  the  features. 
There  was  the  play  of  some  strong  inward  tumult,  the 
revival,  I  soon  found,  of  long-dead  memories.  I  sat 
dumb  as  a  stone,  too  much  moved  to  break  the  silence, 
too  much  awed  by  the  face  to  know  what  to  say.  It 
seems  that  my  face  too,  w'ith  its  weather-beaten  vigour 
of  northern  life,  had  stirred  the  nature  of  the  stranger 


The  Mysterious  Shot  5 

to  its  depths  ;  a  long-forgotten  existence  had  surged  up 
in  him  from  the  darkness  of  the  past,  and  he  was  re- 
covering it  feature  by  feature.  I  have  often  watched 
the  conflict  of  cloud  and  wind,  of  light  and  gloom, 
across  the  torn  azure  of  night's  infinity  before  the  com- 
ing of  a  tempest  ;  but  the  sight  did  not  approach  in 
intense  magnetism  the  dizzy  chase  of  shadow  and 
gleam  across  this  singular  countenance. 

At  last  the  turmoil  had  passed  its  crisis.  The  mem- 
ories had  fallen  into  arra3^  And,  in  slow  but  passionate 
northern  English  strangely  shot  with  silvery  rhythm, 
I  was  asked  what  country  this  was  and  whether  I  was 
not  an  Englishman,  My  palsy  of  speech  vanished. 
And  the  familiar  words,  uttered  though  they  were  in 
new  accents,  led  me  back  into  the  common  world  of 
question  and  answer.  I  found  it  was  the  Britain  of  a 
generation  ago  he  knew,  before  the  colonies  of  the 
Pacific  had  focussed  her  new  spirit  of  enterprise,  or 
transmuted  their  golden  dreams.  He  remembered  the 
mining  fever  of  Australia,  but  it  was  news  that  it  had 
smitten  New  Zealand  too. 

As  I  spoke  with  him,  he  seemed  to  be  dragging  his 
language  out  of  the  depths  of  sleep.  His  words  and 
recognition  of  my  meaning  came  half  reluctantly. 
And  through  them  wove  fitfully  hints  and  after-gleams 
of  some  intervening  existence  that  had  reached  a 
higher  plane  than  that  of  his  youth.  The  ethereal  ring 
would  come  into  his  voice,  the  translucent  look  into  his 
face,  and  then  vanish  before  the  touch  of  those  lower 
terrene  reminiscences.  Yet  even  amidst  them  there 
would  appear  at  times  the  tremulous  appeal  of  human 
pathos.  As  our  words  approached  the  memories  of 
his  childhood,  they  sounded  from  his  lips  like  the 
funeral  bells  of  a  village  folded  in  mist.     The  grosser 


6      .  Riallaro 

liumanit}'  that  seemed  to  come  back  to  him  from  a 
buried  past  grew  shadowed  and  mournful  with  piteous 
thoughts.  There  sighed  out  of  his  lost  youth  a 
winter  wind  that  sounded  through  the  crevices  of 
ruined  cities  and  over  uncounted  graves. 

It  took  weeks  for  us  to  reach  more  familiar  inter- 
course ;  and  this  alternation  of  a  common  and  ethereal 
humanit}'  in  him  continued  to  break  the  magnetism 
that  often  seemed  about  to  bind  us.  We  came  from  the 
same  district  of  the  North,  although  he  evaded  all 
questions  as  to  the  localit)'  ;  and  I  came  to  know  by 
instinct  the  topics  to  avoid  with  him.  He  would  listen 
by  the  hour  to  stories  and  descriptions  of  the  dales  and 
hills  ;  but  he  never  permitted  a  reference  that  would 
fix  his  native  place  or  time.  One  serious  difiiculty  at 
first  was  his  refusal  of  all  our  ordinary  food  ;  he  would 
not  touch  the  flesh  of  animal  in  any  form,  and  we  had 
to  give  up  to  him  all  our  meal  and  flour  and  lentils. 
But,  as  we  saw  him  at  times  grow  faint,  we  introduced 
some  of  our  animal  soups  into  his  food — for  he  refused 
all  food  that  needed  the  use  of  teeth.  A  singular 
change  seemed  to  come  over  him  from  this  time  ;  he 
began  to  grow  more  like  our  muscular,  carnal  human- 
ity, and  his  moods  of  limpid  ethereality  were  rarer  and 
briefer.  Thereafter  he  .seemed  to  lower  himself  more 
to  our  plane  of  thought  and  life,  though  even  then  he 
rose  long  flights  above  us.  Why  he  stayed  with  rough 
miners  like  us  so  long,  when  he  might  have  shone  in 
the  most  brilliant  circles  of  Kurope,  was  a  mystery  ; 
but  it  became  clear  at  a  later  stage.  He  worked  with 
me  and  had  a  marv^ellous  power  of  revealing  the  secrets 
of  the  rocks  and  the  crust  of  the  earth  ;  like  the  fabu- 
lous divining  rod  he  knew  what  metal  lay  below,  and 
how  far  we  should  have  to  seek  for  it  ;  and  ten  thousand 


The  Mysterious  Shot  7 

times  over  he  repaid  all  that  his  living  cost.  We  offered 
him  his  share  of  our  partnership  ;  but  our  proposal  was 
ever  smiled  aside  as  if  it  came  from  children  in  some 
childish  p^ay.  He  seemed  to  look  years  be3-ond  our 
point  of  view. 

How  deep  the  debt  we  owe  him  when  we  think  of  all 
he  taught  us  !  Beside  it  all  else  sinks  into  nothing- 
ness. And  there  is  no  way  in  which  we  can  vent  our 
gratitude  to  him  but  by  telling  his  story  to  other  men 
as  he  told  it  to  us.  We  could  have  spent  all  our  days 
as  well  as  all  our  nights  in  listening  to  him.  But  it 
was  only  now  and  then  he  fell  into  the  mood  of  remin- 
iscence. And  so  great  a  value  did  we  attach  to  his 
ever}'  word  that  after  each  conversation  or  monologue 
we  retired  into  our  storehouse  cave  and  wrote  it  down. 
We  did  our  best  to  give  his  own  language  and  form, 
but  memory  is  treacherous,  and  we  felt  at  each  attempt 
that  we  had  marred  the  beauty  or  nobleness  of  his 
utterances  by  phrases  of  our  own  or  by  the  tinge  of  our 
personalities.  He  followed  no  sequence  of  time  or  cir- 
cumstance ;  for  he  spoke  as  his  own  spirit  or  our  themes 
moved  him.  But  out  of  our  rough  jottings  we  have 
pieced  together  the  following  narrative,  most  of  it  our 
representation  at  the  moment  of  his  speech,  some  of  it 
from  the  distant  memory  of  incidental  talks  with  him 
in  the  bush,  when  we  were  far  from  paper  or  pen.  It 
is  as  close  an  approach  to  his  very  words  as  our  love 
and  reverence  have  been  able  to  achieve. 

Godfrey  Sweven, 
Theodore  Somm, 
Christian  Trowm. 


CHAPTER    I 


RESURRECTIONS 


GOD,  God  !  how  Th}^  past  clings  to  us  like 
shadows,  turn  we  as  we  may  forever  to  the 
sunrise  !  Out  of  the  night  and  from  beyond  it  come 
forms  that  seem  buried  below  the  reach  of  grave-dese- 
crating memory  ;  they  plead  with  us  and  claim  us  as 
their  kin,  and  all  the  nobleness  we  have  laboured  after 
succumbs  to  the  witchery  of  their  piteous  appeals. 

It  was  indeed  pathetic  to  see  his  face  as  he  struggled  with  a 
past  that  had  been  dead  for  a  generation.  He  thrust  it  from 
him  and  it  would  return.  He  reached  out  for  dim  features  of  it 
he  had  loved,  and  they  eluded  him.  At  last  came  out  of  the 
wreckage  of  dreams  the  solidarity  of  life  and  law. 

How  tyrannous  the  bond  of  nature  is  !  What  love 
my  mother  bore  me,  and  how  the  memorj^  of  it  wells 
over  the  desert  of  my  youth  !  Had  she  lived,  I  never 
could  have  broken  with  my  European  life.  It  is  ma- 
ternal love  that  binds  age  to  age.  A  torrent  of  inborn 
feeling  w^akes  in  me  for  the  old  graveyard  where  she 
lies  overlooking  the  sea.  I  know  she  is  not  there,  and 
yet  I  could  kiss  the  dear  earth  that  covers  her  ashes. 
From  her  I  drew  all  that  was  best  in  me  ;  to  her,  only 
a  fisherman's  daughter,  I  looked  for  every  thought 

8 


Resurrections  9 

that  controlled  me  in  boyhood.  My  father,  the  earl's 
son,  disowned  for  his  lowly  love  and  marriage,  was 
only  a  phantom  to  me,  honoured  but  unreal ;  for  he  died 
soon  after  I  was  born.  Nor  could  I  ever  own  the 
churlish  stock  that  thrust  him  forth  for  loyalty  to  a 
peasant.  Often  did  the  crabbed  old  grandsire  try  to 
woo  me  from  the  sea-smelling  hut  to  his  great  castle  ; 
as  often  was  his  pride  wounded  by  refusal.  What  had 
I  to  do  with  a  race  still  savage  in  its  adherence  to  caste, 
and  incapable  of  seeing  the  beauty  of  a  character  apart 
from  position  ?  All  my  being  belonged  to  the  gentler, 
more  civilised  nature  of  my  mother  ;  I  was  obstinately 
democratic  in  my  sympathies,  hating  even  the  shadow 
of  primeval  aristocracy  that  rests  upon  childhood  and 
youth. 

One  thing  he  succeeded  in  doing.  He  drove  my 
mother,  by  dint  of  threats,  expostulations,  and  reason- 
ings, to  send  me  for  a  few  years  to  one  of  the  large 
English  public  schools.  And  this  period  was  the  purg- 
atory of  my  life,  such  despotisms  and  persecutions 
demonised  over  the  unconforming  nucleus  of  my  char- 
acter. And,  when  summer  came,  her  love,  the  uncouth 
sympathy  of  the  fishermen,  the  rhythmic  sea,  and  the 
steadfast  foreheads  of  the  cliffs  cooled  the  fever  of  my 
wronged  spirit.  Only  the  persistence  of  the  old  fire- 
eater  with  his  instinctive  valuation  of  the  still  savage 
virtues  of  his  caste  could  keep  her  from  jMelding  to  my 
never-ending  entreaties.  Not  till  palsy  shut  the  gates 
of  his  expression  did  she  take  courage  to  resist  his  in- 
fluence, and  let  me  remain  with  her  and  solitude  as  my 
teachers. 

A  few  years  more  and  his  iron  spirit  left  its  long- 
dead  tenement.  His  title  and  mansion  and  great  estates 
were  thrust  upon  me.     But  I  refused  to  acknowledge 


lo  Riallaro 

the  position  except  so  far  as  to  divide  the  revenue 
amongst  the  poor.  What  did  I  or  my  mother  need 
more  than  we  had  ?  Wh}-  should  we  leave  our  lowly 
friends,  and  our  comradeship  with  the  sea  ?  What 
good  purpose  could  it  serve  to  spend  these  vast  sums 
every  year  on  personal  enjoyment  that  would  be  none 
to  us  ?  We  stayed  in  our  little  dwelling  perched  in  a 
nook  of  the  cliffs,  and  I  followed  my  ancestral  calling 
over  the  ever-moving  element  that  had  nursed  me. 
Courage  and  lowliness  and  love  of  mankind  sank  deeper 
and  deeper  into  my  system.  Books  and  thought  and 
the  ever-changeful  waves  tutored  my  spirit  and  widened 
the  issues  of  life.  I  began  to  feel  strangely  dissatisfied 
with  all  that  was  called  civilisation,  seeing  how  far  it 
fell  short  of  justice  and  truth  and  liberty.  I  was  har- 
assed with  my  own  dcstiii}'  and  even  more  with  that  of 
mankind.  How  could  I  better  my  thoughts  by  heaping 
the  responsibilities  of  lucre  upon  them  ?  The  everlast- 
ing antagonism  between  our  longing  for  rest  andour 
need  of  labour  goaded  me  as  it  did  all  others.  And 
how  was  change  of  sphere  or  multiplication  of  financial 
cares  to  effect  a  truce  ?  No  ;  it  seemed  to  me,  in  my 
youthful  romancing,  that  the  possibility  of  cure  lay 
not  in  increasing  the  desires  and  their  means  of  satis- 
faction, but  in  reducing  the  needs.  The  denominator 
in  this  poor  fraction  of  the  universe  called  human  life 
was  more  plastic  than  the  numerator.  What  was  the 
acquisition  of  wealth  and  influence  but  the  insertion  of 
ciphers  in  our  little  decimal  of  existence  ?  What  could 
the  world  do  for  the  inborn  sickness  of  the  human 
spirit  ? 

If  the  rest  was  to  be  found,  it  was  in  primitive  con- 
ditions of  life,  perhaps  in  some  obscure  tribe  that  lived 
close  to  nature  and  had  never  heard  an  echo  of  our 


Resurrections  ii 

western  world.  With  the  restless  nomadic  instincts  of 
boyhood  and  youth  passionate  within  me,  I  longed  to 
set  forth  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  into  seas  untraversed. 
The  sea-ferment  stirred  my  Scandinavian  blood.  To 
rove  untrammelled,  to  meet  sudden  storms  and  dangers, 
to  hold  intercourse  with  pure  human  souls  fresh  from 
God's  hand  and  unstained  with  the  duplicities  of  lux- 
urious grasping  races — this  was  the  dream  of  my  early 
years.  But  my  mother  would  not  stir  from  the  loved 
shore  of  her  girlhood  or  the  grave  of  the  husband  who 
had  died  too  young  to  shatter  her  romance.  And  she 
was  a  comrade  from  whom  I  could  not  part.  Year  after 
year  had  bound  us  closer  together,  and,  before  man- 
hood had  unloosed  the  reins  of  my  will,  her  forty  years 
and  locality  —  a  stronger  influence  in  her  sex— had 
riveted  down  their  fetters  upon  her  spirit. 
But  ah,  God!  there  came  a  time 

The  surge  of  memory  was  too  great  for  him.  He  would  not 
let  the  tears  come  aud  he  fled  out  iuto  the  woods.  We  saw  no 
more  of  him  for  days.  Nor  could  he  approach  the  subject  but 
with  wild  resurgence  of  sorrow  that  choked  up  speech.  But  by 
hint  and  inference  we  were  able  to  mosaic  together  the  history 
of  this  tempest  that  swept  through  his  life.  His  mother  had 
died  not  long  after  he  had  attained  his  majority,  and  his  grief 
palsied  his  energies  for  almost  a  year.  But  driven  to  the  net 
aud  the  sea  again  by  sheer  fatigue  of  brooding,  youth  reflooded 
his  veins  with  the  old  passions  and  ideals,  and  the  flame  in  his 
blood  mastered  grief.  Then  came  the  thought  that  the  wealth 
he  had  repelled  so  long  might  enable  him  to  fulfil  the  dream  of 
his  boyhood,  and  to  reach  some  land  untainted  by  the  vices  of 
Europe.  And  the  discovery  that  part  of  his  heritage  was  a 
yacht  driven  by  the  marvellous  new  power  of  steam,  that 
laughed  at  wind,  and  wave,  aud  current,  made  him  as  one 
possessed.  Everything  bent  to  his  new  idea.  He  gathered  his 
old  comrades  and  playmates  together,  and  he  went  with  them 
to  master  the  whole  craft  of  the  steam-engine  aud  the  screw; 


1 2  Riallaro 

they  learned  every  item  of  the  marine  engineer's  trade ;  and 
each  he  set  to  gain  skill  in  some  special  part.  He  travelled 
himself  from  university  to  university,  from  laboratory  to  labor- 
atory in  order  to  master  the  best  that  was  known  in  the  physical 
sciences.  He  fitted  out  his  yacht  with  the  apparatus  and  ma- 
terial that  would  be  needed  for  repairing  any  part  of  her,  fur- 
nished her  with  everything  that  would  enable  him  to  pass  years 
away  from  civilisation  and  to  gain  influence  over  the  wild  races 
he  might  encounter.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  collect  for  her  a  library 
of  the  finest  books,  not  only  imaginative  and  scientific,  but 
pertaining  to  the  arts.  And,  when  all  was  ready  and  his 
machinery  and  crew  had  been  tested  in  brief  voyages  north  and 
west  across  the  winter  and  summer  Atlantic,  he  bade  farewell 
to  his  hut  upon  the  shore  and  the  loved  graveyard  on  the  hill 
and  set  out  to  seek  adventure  and  a  land  of  primitive  simplicity 
in  untravelled  seas. 

How  our  blood  surged  with  delight  as  we  swept 
away  to  the  south  under  full  sail  and  head  of  steam  ! 
The  ridged  currents  of  the  main,  the  wind-curled  sum- 
mits of  the  great  billows  only  made  our  hearts  to  tingle. 
We  were  out  free  with  God's  elements,  our  friends  ; 
no  rumour  of  cruelty  or  injustice  or  bitter  grief  to 
harass  our  spirits.  Young,  bold,  well-mated,  bound 
by  the  ties  of  common  tastes  and  common  traditions, 
nothing  seemed  to  us  too  difficult  to  attempt. 

Round  the  old  cape  of  storms,  down  into  the  latitude 
of  icebergs,  we  easted  till  we  hailed  the  coasts  of  Aus- 
tralia. In  her  towns  and  cities  we  learned  from  traders 
and  sailors  all  we  could  of  the  islands  that  la}^  in  the 
Pacific.  Much  of  romance,  much  of  dim  rumour  based 
on  fact  vitiated  their  tales  and  yet  drew  us  on  with 
magnetic  power.  Past  New  Zealand  with  her  sombre 
fiords  and  the  argent  glory  of  her  mountains  we  swept, 
gleaning  from  her  sealers  and  whalers  still  more  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  dim  Pacific  world  we  were  about  to 


Resurrections  13 

see.  Our  blood  coursed  quicker  in  our  veins  as  we 
touched  the  first  pahu-fringed  atolls  of  the  coral  belt. 
And  every  new  island  we  reached  we  seemed  to  get 
closer  and  closer  to  the  centre  of  the  primitive  world  we 
desired  to  visit. 

For  through  the  narratives  that  we  heard  of  the  won- 
ders of  the  great  Pacific  archipelago  there  ran  an 
undercurrent  of  reference  to  some  mystic  region  that 
had  deeply  impressed  the  imaginations  of  all  frequenters 
of  this  tropical  sea,  whether  natives  or  foreigners.  The 
islanders  would  scarcely  speak  of  it  and  a  curtain  of 
superstition  hung  round  it  unlifted.  Even  Europeans 
spoke  of  it  with  bated  breath. 

But  the  more  they  evaded  my  questions,  the  more  was 
I  roused  to  get  at  some  definite  knowledge.  From 
island  to  island  we  sailed  in  quest  of  the  direction  of 
this  strange  mirage  of  the  sea.  At  times  I  concluded 
that  it  was  but  a  religious  myth,  a  hades  invented  by 
the  priests  or  by  the  crude  imagination  of  early  wor- 
shippers to  account  for  the  misery  of  man  and  to  define 
the  destiny  of  his  wilder  nature.  Then  would  come 
some  hint  that  pointed  to  physical  fact  as  its  basis. 

After  weary,  half-baffled  investigation,  I  seemed  to 
find  a  certain  nucleus  of  reality.  There  lay  away  to 
the  south-east  of  Oceania,  out  of  the  track  of  ships,  an 
enormous  region  of  the  Pacific  sealed  by  a  ring  of  fog 
that  had  never  lifted  in  the  memor}'  of  man.  Ships 
had  sailed  into  it  and  never  come  out  again  ;  canoes 
that  had  ventured  too  near  had  been  sucked  in  by  the 
eddies  that  circled  round  it,  and  never  been  seen 
again.  Above  it  there  flashed  strange  lights  that 
dimmed  the  stars  and  the  play  of  gleaming  wings 
seemed  at  times  to  rise  far  above  it  and  vanish.  To 
some  islanders  it  was  the  refuge  of  the  souls  of  their 


14  Riallaro 

dead;  to  others  it  was  the  home  of  the  demons  who 
issued  half-seen,  half-nnseen  to  torture  them  with 
plague  and  storm  and  disaster. 

When  I  had  discovered  the  direction  in  which  it  lay 
and  defined  its  position  on  my  chart,  we  ran  back  to 
the  coast  of  New  Zealand  for  coal  and  other  supplies 
that  would  last  me  months,  if  not  years.  All  ready,  I 
summoned  my  staunch  comrades  who  formed  the  crew 
and  told  them  the  bent  of  my  enterprise,  laying  stress 
upon  its  dangers  and  uncertainty.  Not  one  flinched, 
perhaps  because  their  liv^es  lay  all  in  the  future  ;  none 
had  left  wife  or  sweetheart  behind,  none  was  old  enough 
to  have  fixed  ambition  or  a  desire  of  settled  existence. 
The  sea  had  bred  in  them  through  their  long  ancestry 
a  love  of  its  mystery  and  its  manj^-voiced  dreams. 
None  but  imaginative  natures  had  attached  themselves 
to  me  in  youth.  And  on  board,  during  their  long 
periods  of  rest,  it  was  romance,  and  poetrj-,  and  other 
books  of  imagination  they  read.  Not  one  of  them  had 
escaped  the  lotus-breathing  air  of  these  dreamy  archi- 
pelagoes. Not  one  of  them  but  loathed  the  thought  of 
western  life  with  its  mean  ambitions  and  falsities. 
Anything  was  better  than  the  labyrinth  of  disease  and 
wrong  and  crime  wherein  they  must  lose  their  way  in 
old  Europe.  Even  without  such  considerations,  there 
was  enough  loyalty  to  their  old  comrade  and  leader 
to  make  them  follow  him  wherever  he  would  go.  A 
cheer  ended  our  conference,  and  we  weighed  anchor 
to  a  new  chant  with  the  refrain  "  Heave  ho!  let 's  seek 
the  secret  of  Riallaro." 


CHAPTER  II 


RIAIvLARO 


SUCH  was  the  name  that  one  group  of  islands  gave 
to  this  mystic  region  of  the  sea  ;  and  it  meant 
"  the  ring  of  mist."  A  sense  of  awe  fell  on  me  as  I 
listened  to  the  chorus.  Whither  was  I  dragging  these 
5'oung  spirits  with  me  ?  What  would  be  the  end  of 
our  expedition  ?  Would  we  ever  come  forth  alive  from 
this  mist}'  sphere  ?  It  held  within  it,  I  felt,  some  of 
the  most  momentous  secrets  of  existence  ;  but  whether 
these  would  be  baneful  or  gracious  no  one  could  tell. 
It  was  only  after  I  had  felt  ever3-thing  ready  for  my 
venture  that  I  became  tremulous  as  to  the  result.  The 
energ}'  of  my  nature,  that  had  been  absorbed  in  definite 
search  for  knowledge,  and  definite  preparation,  was 
now  set  free  for  brooding;  and  I  passed  dail}-  in  thought 
from  hope  to  despair,  from  despair  to  hope.  All  the 
delight  of  outlook  was  now  lost  in  the  uncertainty. 
The  few  shreds  of  fact,  that  I  had  been  able  to  pick  out 
of  hint  and  tradition  and  religious  fear,  seemed  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  the  mystery  to  be  ridiculous  and 
inadequate  for  any  definite  step.  I  became  the  prey 
of  trepidation  and  self-upbraiding.  Dreams  of  failure 
and  disaster  haunted  me  day  and  night.  I  thought 
over  the  stories  of  Ulysses,  and  ^neas,  of  Orpheus,  and 

15 


1 6  Riallaro 

Dante  as  the  prototypes  of  our  enterprise  ;  they  had 
returned  from  the  lower  world  ;  might  not  we  too  re- 
turn from  this  nebulous  hades  ?  But  alas!  no  consola- 
tion came  from  such  tales  ;  they  were  but  the  shadows 
of  dreams;  whilst  we  were  about  to  face  an  impossible 
geographical  problem  in  the  midst  of  a  sceptical  scien- 
tific generation.  How  could  I  close  my  ej-es  to  the 
insane  hardihood  of  our  venture  ? 

Before  I  could  recover  from  the  truculent  despotism 
of  such  thoughts,  this  sphinx  of  mist  stared  me  in  the 
face,  and  no  retreat  was  left  for  us.  Long  and  silent 
meditations  and  pacings  of  the  deck  had  left  me  ex- 
hausted, and  one  breathless  and  moonless  night  I  sank 
into  a  profound  sleep  that  fettered  me  down  long  after 
sunrise.  My  officers  could  not  waken  me,  and  it  was 
only  at  last  sheer  necessity  that  drove  them  to  rouse 
me  by  main  force.  I  stared  about  me  dazed  ;  but  one 
word  from  them  —  "Riallaro" — set  every  nerve 
a-quiver.  I  rushed  on  deck  and  saw  close  on  us  a 
mist  that  blurred  the  whole  eastern  side  of  the  sky.  I 
stopped  the  engines  and  then  reversed  them.  But  on 
came  the  mist  ;  on  flew  the  ship  into  it.  I  looked 
over  the  bulwarks,  and  saw  that  we  were  borne  along 
by  a  current  like  a  mill-race.  My  men  stared  blankly 
at  me.  The  engines  had  little  effect  in  stemming  the 
force  of  the  water.  And  before  we  could  think  what  to 
do  the  fog  had  closed  in  upon  us,  and  we  could  not  see 
above  a  ship's  length  in  any  direction. 

Away  we  rushed,  whither  we  knew  not,  for  the 
compass  spun  wildly  back  and  forward  on  its  pivot. 
Every  piece  of  iron  on  the  ship  seemed  to  be  turned 
into  a  magnet.  And  what  was  worse,  my  signals  to 
the  engine-room  were  unheeded  ;  and  on  looking  down, 
we  found  the  engineers  lying  stiff  upon  its  floor.     I 


Riallaro  17 

sent  two  down  to  take  their  place  ;  and  as  soon  as  they 
had  stopped  the  engines,  the}'  too  succumbed  and  fell 
into  a  trance.  Even  the  man  at  the  wheel  felt  drowsy 
and  incapable,  only  violent  self-control  and  movement 
resisting  the  somnolence  that  seemed  to  creep  over  him. 
I  remembered  that  the  house  in  which  he  stood  was 
iron,  and  that  around  there  was  more  iron  than  any- 
where else  on  the  ship,  except  in  the  engine-room.  I 
determined  to  husband  my  crew  till  I  had  understood 
our  position,  and  was  ready  for  a  supreme  effort  at 
escape. 

Amazement  passed  into  terror,  as  there  swept  out  of 
the  mist  and  slowly  passed  us  an  old  Spanish  caravel, 
with  rotting  sails  and  yards,  and  shrivelled  mummies 
in  antique  Spanish  costume  lying  on  the  poop  and  at 
various  points  of  the  deck,  in  the  attitude  of  sleep. 
We  could  have  almost  leapt  on  board  this  ship  of  death, 
so  close  was  it  to  us.  The  horror  paralysed  us,  and 
out  of  sight  it  vanished,  taking  giant  proportions  to  it 
in  the  mist.  Not  many  yards  behind  it  moved  another 
apparition  of  the  past,  a  canoe  with  mummied  natives 
fallen  at  the  oar  as  in  a  trance.  And  still  another  in 
the  ghostly  funeral  train,  a  Malay  proa  with  motionless 
crew  that  seemed  just  fallen  asleep,  loomed  spectral  in 
our  rear.  Was  this  awful  procession  never  to  cease  ? 
Were  we  to  fall  into  its  line  and  sail  on  for  ages  ?  The 
last  apparition  was  right  in  our  wake,  and  had  it  moved 
nearer  to  us  would  have  struck  us  on  the  stern  ;  but  it 
swept  on  after  a  brief  interval  aft.  And  then  I  had 
time  to  think  that  it  was  the  impulse  of  the  reversed 
engines  that  had  thus  brought  us  within  sight  of  three 
different  craft  in  this  ghastly  pageant. 

The  native  superstition  that  nests  in  every  seafarer's 
heart  began  to  leaven  my  crew  and  master  even  their 


1 8  Riallaro 

courage  and  their  loyalty  to  me.  A  curse  seemed  to 
rest  on  all  that  were  drawn  into  this  mist-bearing  cur- 
rent. Whither  it  was  to  take  us  and  what  would  be 
our  fate  weighed  heavil}'  on  mj^  own  mind.  A  drowsy 
feeling  crept  over  me  as  I  stood  and  meditated;  only 
when  I  moved  about  could  I  drive  off  the  lethargy.  If 
once  we  went  to  sleep,  there  was  clearly  no  awaking. 
Action  was  needed  ;  and  yet  how  to  act  was  a  puzzle  ; 
in  which  direction  to  steer  we  knew  not. 

Out  of  nu'  reverie  was  I  startled  by  a  new  and  ap- 
palling danger.  There  rose  gigantic  out  of  the  mist 
upon  our  starboard  bow  a  great  ship  as  still  and  silent 
as  the  reef  into  which  it  was  wedged.  My  men  rushed 
with  a  wild  cry  to  the  bulwarks  to  fend  off  our  yacht  ; 
but  we  grazed  past  her  unhurt  ;  and  on  her  decks  we 
saw  the  forms  of  English  sailors  stretched  in  sleep  at 
least  if  not  in  death.  The  sight  dispelled  the  creeping 
torpor  from  our  minds.  I  saw  that  swift  action  must 
be  taken.  I  sent  a  volunteer  down  into  the  engine- 
room;  and,  before  the  iron  drowse  overcame  him,  he 
managed  to  fasten  two  ropes,  that  we  let  down  from  the 
skylights,  in  such  a  waj'  that  we  could  start  or  stop  the 
engines  from  the  deck.  We  must  get  steering  way 
upon  the  ship  in  order  to  avoid  these  reefs  and  their 
wrecks.  We  moved  gently  ahead  and  passed  along 
the  ghostly  procession  ;  every  generation  for  centuries 
past,  ever}'  seafaring  race  upon  earth  seemed  to  con- 
tribute one  ship  of  death,  or  more,  to  this  long  funeral 
train  ;  ghastly  laj^  their  crew,  sometimes  shrivelled  by 
long  ages  of  rest,  often  seeming  to  have  just  fallen 
asleep. 

My  newly  stirred  thought  now  grasped  the  meaning 
of  this  sepulchral  pageant.  The  movement  of  these 
hurrying  graves  must  be  in  a  circle  round  some  centre 


Riallaro  19 

that  lay  on  the  starboard  ;  round  and  round  they  had 
wheeled  for  years,  many  of  them  for  centuries.  If  I 
were  to  fulfil  the  purpose  of  my  voyage,  our  way  lay  to 
the  right  ;  for  from  the  larboard  side  we  had  been 
sucked  into  this  whirlpool. 

I  took  the  wheel  myself  and  steered  the  ship  across 
the  floating  funeral  train.  Once  we  grazed  the  bow  of 
an  East  Indiaman;  again  we  cut  in  two  a  war  canoe  of 
the  islanders  ;  out  of  the  mist  they  swept  appallingly 
upon  us.  Nor  could  we  pause  to  see  what  became  of 
the  shattered  craft.  A  half  an  hour  and  we  sailed  in 
freer  waters  ;  for  several  minutes  not  one  circling  ap- 
parition loomed  through  the  mist  ;  the  set  of  the  cur- 
rent grew  less  impetuous;  and  the  fog  seemed  to  rarefy. 
Before  long  a  luminous  warmth  mingled  with  the 
nebulous  atmosphere;  we  could  see  denser  masses  move 
and  break  above  us  ;  and  at  last  a  corona  of  light  shone 
hazily  through  the  gloom.  Our  hearts  leapt  within 
us  ;  and  yet  we  repressed  the  cry  of  joy  that  rose  spon- 
taneously to  our  lips,  for  we  might  only  be  passing 
across  from  one  circle  of  eclipse  to  another.  The  glim- 
mer of  light  grew  into  intermittent  gleams  and  then 
broke  into  the  resplendence  of  full  day.  The  repressed 
cheer  burst  forth  at  the  sight,  and  our  comrades  stirred 
in  their  trance  at  the  sound.  They  rubbed  their  eyes 
and  awoke.  They  marvelled  at  our  jubilance,  and 
thought  that  they  had  fainted  but  the  minute  before. 
It  had  been  an  honr  or  so  after  daybreak  that  we 
entered  the  circle  of  death  and  now  the  sun  was  wester- 
ing towards  its  set.  The  long  hours  of  fast  and  terror 
and  anxious  thought  had  exhausted  those  of  us  who 
had  been  awake.  And  after  instructions  to  those  who 
had  but  risen  from  sleep  to  stop  the  ship  and  watch,  we 
succumbed  to  our  fatig-ue. 


20  Riallaro 

We  lay  inert  for  almost  twentj'-four  hours,  and  our 
comrades,  after  stopping  the  engines,  had  again  fallen 
into  their  trance.  It  was  more  than  mere  exhaustion 
that  held  us  so  imprisoned  in  unconsciousness  ;  it  was 
the  magnetic  power  of  the  ring  of  mist  through  which 
we  had  passed. 

I  learned  afterwards  the  causes  of  this  strange  phe- 
nomenon, though  for  years  it  remained  a  niysterj'  to 
me.  Thousands  of  ages  before  a  submerged  continent 
had  left  an  irregular  oval  like  a  broken  ring  close  to 
the  surface  of  the  water;  and  this  annular  reef  consisted 
chiefly  of  magnetic  iron  molten  from  the  adjacent  rocks 
by  the  heat  of  the  great  central  volcano  that  formed 
the  nucleus  of  the  gigantic  atoll  ;  on  this  adamantine 
ellipse  the  coral  insects  had  raised  their  lace-like  ridge. 
Upon  the  north  and  south  sides  of  it  respectively  two 
great  currents  impinged,  one  from  the  tropics  and  one 
from  the  antarctic  regions.  The  warmer  rush  of  waters 
was  bent  round  the  eastern  side  of  the  circular  waJl  of 
iron,  the  colder  broke  round  the  western  side  ;  and  in- 
stead of  losing  all  their  impetus,  or  neutralising  each 
other,  they  ran  parallel  most  of  their  watery  orbit  be- 
fore they  mingled  ;  and  this  continuous  proximity  of 
hot  and  cold  generated  the  circle  of  steam  that  sealed 
the  waters  of  this  mighty  unknown  atoll.  Into  the 
swift  circle  of  death  ships  were  sucked  both  from  north 
and  south,  and  the  magnetic  force  of  the  iron  founda- 
tions of  the  reef  caught  their  life  in  the  trammels  of 
sleep  and  then  of  death.  Never  before  had  a  power 
that  could  master  these  subtle  forces  entered  the  sphere 
of  their  influence.  Steam  had  broken  the  seal  of  this 
annular  exhalation.  And  good  fortune  had  led  me  to 
steer  our  new  craft  through  the  only  opening  left  un- 
piled  by  the  little  coral  workers.     A  feeble  branch  of 


Riallaro 


21 


the  elliptic  current  found  its  way  into  the  quieter  waters 
within  ;  and  upon  this  we  chanced  in  our  efforts  to  get 
clear  of  the  ships  of  death  that  swept  on  in  funeral  pro- 
cession. 

So  gentle  was  this  current  that  I  had  not  noticed  it 
before  I  fell  asleep  ;  and  when  I  awoke  under  the  stroke 
of  the  noon's  rays  I  found  that  we  were  drifting  rapidly 
upon  a  precipitous  coast. 

With  the  swiftness  of  alarm  I  wakened  my  men  and 
sent  her  spinning  astern  at  full  speed.  As  we  stood 
out  from  the  land,  I  could  see  it  was  a  low  island  or 
promontory,  for  the  water  beyond  gleamed  across  it. 
And  far  in  the  distance  were  the  dim  outlines  of  two  or 
three  islands  that  broke  the  horizon  line  ;  and  like  an 
iceberg  rose,  at  a  still  greater  distance,  the  snow-capped 
peak  of  some  great  mountain  that  seemed  companion 
to  the  clouds  of  fleece  in  the  sky.  Behind  us  lay  the 
wall  of  mist  through  which  we  had  broken ;  the  eastern 
curve  of  the  ellipse  was  too  far  off  to  show  the  slightest 
fleck  of  mist  above  the  rim  of  sky. 


CHAPTER  III 


LANDING 


AT  last,  I  was  sure,  we  were  about  to  know  a  people 
that  bad  not  blurred  the  features  of  primeval 
virtue.  And  yet  I  laughed  at  the  thought.  What 
was  there  in  human  nature  to  insure  material  advance 
without  contamination  of  the  spirit  ?  How  were  the 
ages  to  whip  the  old  Adam  out  of  us  but  by  new  vices  ? 
Never  had  the  world  known  exception.  But  here  were 
lands  fenced  off  from  contagion  for  uncounted  ages. 
Perchance  the  strange  conditions  had  evolved  a  sim- 
pler civilisation  ;  perchance  the  strange  quarantine  in 
human  history  had  checked  the  influx  of  all  common 
spiritual  disease. 

And  there  was  a  strange  ethereal  beauty  misted  over 
the  parts  that  we  could  see.  A  thin  veil,  as  of  gos- 
samer, withdrew  and  yet  revealed  the  features  of  the 
scenery  ;  and  our  imaginations  were  stirred  to  know 
the  reality  we  could  but  dimly  see.  It  excited  us  like 
a  dream  but  half-remembered.  Our  natures  tingled 
with  curiosity  and  eagerness  ;  and  ev^ery  nerve  was 
braced  to  find  our  way  beneath  the  veil. 

We  made  for  a  beautiful  landlocked  harbour  that 
seemed  to  promise  shelter  of  the  fairest  ;  but  it  was 
only  a  mirage  and  faded  into  a  long  shelving  beach  of 

22 


Landing  23 

sand.  We  tried  to  anchor,  but  we  could  find  no  bot- 
tom. And  as  there  was  perfect  calm  we  rowed  towards 
the  shore  with  a  hawser,  hoping  to  find  some  rock  or 
tree  on  which  to  tie  it.  The  sandy  slope  was  but  an 
illusion,  too,  and  when  we  came  to  solid  features  we 
found  there  was  nothing  but  a  sheer  wall  of  rock, 
rising  to  hundreds  of  feet  above  us,  that  laughed  at  our 
toil.  Chance  after  chance,  point  of  vantage  after  point 
of  vantage  led  us  on,  eager,  expectant,  only  to  sicken 
us  with  illusion.  It  seemed  to  be  the  land  of  phantasms. 

At  length,  weary  with  chilled  eagerness,  we  saw  the 
coast  slope  downwards  to  the  mouth  of  a  river.  Our 
labours  were  about  to  be  crowned  with  success.  We 
found  an  anchorage  and  rowed  towards  the  shore. 
But  no  landing-place  offered  ;  every  piece  of  seeming 
solid  shore  turned  out  a  quicksand  when  we  touched  it 
with  our  feet  ;  only  the  watchful  care  of  our  comrades 
in  the  boat  saved  us  from  disaster.  And  the  breakers 
on  the  bar  of  the  river  churned  to  white  warned  us  off. 
We  risked  the  entrance  at  last,  and  were  capsized.  I 
swam  for  a  jutting  rock  that  near  the  bank  stemmed 
the  outrunning  current.  Exhausted  with  the  long 
effort  I  reached  out  and  caught  the  weedy  tangle  that 
clung  to  its  sides  ;  I  dragged  myself  up  its  jagged, 
wounding  .slope,  and  fell  into  a  hollow  that  held  me  as 
I  lay  in  swoon. 

Annihilation  thawed  into  consciousness  of  the  blue 
skj'  in  my  eyes  and  of  the  flinty  rock  on  which  I  was 
stretched.  I  rose,  torn  and  bleeding,  and  looked  out 
for  my  comrades.  I  could  see  onl\'  the  keel  of  the  boat 
floating  out  to  sea  ;  no  yacht,  no  sign  of  life.  In  my 
hunger,  exhaustion,  and  abandonment  I  could  think 
of  nothing  but  to  make  for  land  and  the  nearest  habit- 
ations. I  ate  some  of  the  shell-fish  on  the  rock,  stanched 


24  Riallaro 

my  wounds,  and  then  threw  myself  into  the  inflowing 
tide.  I  easily  breasted  the  current  that  divided  my 
solitary  crag  from  the  bank,  yet  it  bore  me  in  its  swift- 
ness many  miles  inland  before  I  could  reach  a  land- 
ing-point ;  for  broad  spaces  of  glistening  mud,  in  which 
I  sank  and  floundered,  divided  me  from  the  green  fields 
beyond.  The  tide  swept  me  towards  a  grassy  point  ;  I 
seized  an  overhanging  branch  of  a  tree  and  sprang 
upon  the  firm  ground. 

A  sight  of  marvellous  beauty  held  me  rigid  for  a 
moment.  Marble  palaces,  margined  with  gleaming 
gardens,  flecked  the  length  of  the  river  as  far  as  my 
eye  could  reach,  and  rose,  nested  in  trees,  terrace  above 
terrace,  up  the  slopes  on  either  side.  Boats  with  bril- 
liant coloured  awnings  plied  from  bank  to  bank,  like 
swarms  of  tropical  butterflies,  or  lay  moored  to  flights 
of  snow-pure  steps  that  flanked  the  water  at  intervals. 
Great  temples  and  public  buildings  broke  the  outline 
with  their  sky-pricking  spires.  For  an  instant  I 
doubted  my  eyes  and  thought  illusion  was  playing 
them  false,  such  a  dream  of  beauty  lay  before  them. 

I  dared  not  approach  such  noble  purity  so  begrimed 
as  I  then  was.  I  sought  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  for 
I  knew  that  every  town,  however  beautiful  and  rich, 
draggles  off  in  some  direction  into  meanness  and  filth 
and  penury.  I  marvelled  at  the  extent  of  the  squalor 
here.  When  I  reached  the  highest  point  of  view- 1  saw 
every  gully  and  level  teeming  with  the  evidence  of  in- 
digent myriads.  A  reeking  human  quagmire  stretched 
for  miles  over  the  flood-soaked  borders  of  this  noble 
city,  like  a  rich  robe  of  lace  that  has  dragged  its  train 
through  liquid  filth.  Groves  of  trees  failed  to  conceal 
the  squalor  and  destitution  of  these  low-ljnng  suburbs. 

Yet  there  I  felt  must  be  my  resting-place  till  I  had 


Landing 


25 


found  a  footing  in  the  land.  I  had  enough  precious 
stones  in  m)'  possession  to  serve  me  as  money  for 
months,  if  not  for  years.  Most  of  them  I  buried  in 
a  secret  place,  which  I  marked  well  ;  and  I  traced  a 
map  of  its  position  from  the  chief  features  of  the  city, 
and  from  north  and  west  by  aid  of  a  small  compass  I 
had.  With  two  or  three  rubies  I  made  for  the  centre 
of  the  city's  pauperism,  and  by  means  of  gestures 
managed  to  change  them  in  a  mean  pawnshop  for  the 
coin  of  the  country. 


.i**-:. 
#^. 


•  v'-- %-■  7- :"r---S;^^^li>;:;^ 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    LANGUAGE 

IN  order  to  avoid  too  much  observation,  I  got  housed 
in  an  obscure  hostelry  that  often  accommodated 
foreigners.  But  none  of  the  occupants  knew  my  lan- 
guage, nor  did  I  any  of  theirs.  Gesture  and  mimicry 
supplied  the  defect  for  a  time,  and  a  few  weeks  sufficed 
to  giv^e  me  command  of  the  vocabulary  and  syntax 
needed  for  the  common  intercourse  of  life,  so  easy 
seemed  the  tongue  and  so  clear  the  articulation. 

But  the  difficulty  came  at  a  later  stage.  I  found  I 
could  not  advance  far  without  a  teacher,  and  a  man  of 
the  purer  blood  was  procured  to  act  as  my  tutor.  I 
put  on  the  dress  of  the  marble  city,  and  went  daily  to 
him  for  my  lesson.  What  a  revelation  I  had  of  the 
subtlety  of  language  !  It  was  like  learning  to  skate  ; 
everything  seemed  to  contribute  to  make  me  stumble 
or  fall  ;  and  the  effort  to  recover  was  more  dangerous 
than  collapse.  Every  word  and  phrase  and  idiom  had 
countless  variations  of  meaning  dependent  on  the  in- 
tonation of  the  voice  and  the  peculiar  gesture  or  facial 
expression  adopted.  There  was  a  grammar  and  voc- 
abulary of  tone  as  well  as  of  actual  speech.  And,  be- 
sides this,  gesture  and  grimace  contributed  their  own 
shadings  to  ev^er>'  expression.     The  twitching  of  an 

26 


The  Language  27 

eyebrow  would  turn  "God  bless  you"  into  "God 
damn  you."  A  peculiar  curl  of  the  upper  lip  would 
change  an  inquiry  into  the  state  of  a  man's  health  into 
a  doubt  as  to  the  morality  of  his  ancestors.  A  shrug 
of  the  left  shoulder  would  make  out  of  a  fervid  ' '  I  love 
you  "  as  fervid  an  "  I  hate  you  ";  whilst  a  shrug  of 
the  right  shoulder  would  change  it  into  "  I  despise 
you."  The  eye  had  to  be  on  the  alert  as  well  as  the 
ear  in  finding  out  what  a  man  meant  ;  and  every  limb 
had  to  be  watched  as  well  as  every  feature  of  the  face. 

The  dropping  of  the  lid  of  the  eye,  left  or  right, 
could  impart  to  a  sentence,  or  even  to  a  whole  con- 
versation, meanings  so  radically  different  that  I  became 
nervously  conscious  of  every  involuntary  twitching  as 
I  talked  ;  it  might  imply  sinister  intention,  or  con- 
fidence partial  or  complete  ;  it  might  convey  compli- 
ment or  insult.  It  depended  on  the  amount  of  the  eye 
left  uncovered,  on  the  rapidity  or  slowness  of  the  mo- 
tion, and  on  the  eye  in  which  it  took  place.  But,  most 
bewildering  of  all,  every  depression  of  the  optic  shade 
varied  in  meaning  according  to  the  sex  of  the  person 
addressed  and  the  person  addressing,  and  the  presence 
of  both  sexes,  or  onl)-  one.  The  raising  of  the  eyebrow 
had,  similarly,  a  whole  grammar  and  dictionary  to  itself. 

But  perhaps  the  most  difficult  and  dangerous  of  all 
the  sections  of  their  language  was  the  use  of  the  nose 
in  conversation.  For  both  piety  and  lewdness  had 
seized  upon  this  obtrusive  organ  as  their  own.  If  a 
phrase  or  word  was  snuffled  up  through  the  nasal 
channel,  it  might  express  either  gathering  devotion  or 
rising  passion  ;  only  a  member  of  the  inner  social  circle 
could,  tell  to  a  nicety  which  it  meant,  for  the  former 
was  not  often  accompanied  with  the  elevation  of  the 
eye  to  heaven,  nor  the  latter  with  obscene  gesture. 


28  Riallaro 

I  would  have  abandoned  the  task  of  mastering  the 
various  grammars  and  dictionaries  but  for  the  enthus- 
iasm of  my  tutor.  He  beheved  that  nothing  ever 
existed  so  much  worth  learning — except  what  were 
called  the  rotten  tongues.  These  were  two  languages 
that  had  been  spoken  centuries  before  by  a  race  now 
despised,  if  not  extinct  ;  it  was  a  hotly  discussed  ques- 
tion who  were  its  descendants,  and,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  awkward  necessity  of  seeming  to  follow  the  lead  of 
a  now  debased  people,  the  usual  course  was  to  deny 
their  existence  or  their  connection  with  the  sacred  or 
rotten  tongues — Thribbaty  and  Slapyak.  The  great 
books  of  their  religion  were  studied  in  these  ;  for,  al- 
though it  was  quite  a  different  language  in  which  they 
were  supposed  to  have  been  originall}-  communicated 
to  men,  the  missionaries  who  had  established  the  faith 
in  this  country  had  spoken  in  either  Thribbaty  or  Slap- 
3'ak,  and  the  ritual  had  been  for  ages  written  in  these. 
A  great  political  revolution  had  changed  all  this  gen- 
erations before,  and  the  holy  writings  were  read  and 
the  prayers  and  public  functions  performed  in  the  ver- 
nacular. But  it  had  become  the  custom  for  orators, 
wits,  and  men  of  the  world  to  adorn  their  speech  with 
words  and  phrases  and  quotations  from  the  rotten  or 
interred  tongues,  though  all  their  best  wisdom  and 
thought  had  been  incorporated  in  the  native  literature, 
and  the  stage  of  civilisation  and  especially  ethics  that 
they  represented  had  long  been  antiquated.  They  had 
come  to  be  the  most  valued  shibboleth  of  the  privileged 
classes,  the  barrier  which  none  but  the  most  nimble 
and  daring  wits  of  the  mob  could  overleap.  On  them, 
therefore,  was  based  all  education  ;  to  their  acquisition 
were  attached  all  the  great  prizes  of  state.  On  an  apt 
quotation  from  them  some  of  the  greatest  reputations 


The  Language  29 

had  been  founded.  Bj^  a  dissertation  on  some  obscure 
point  of  their  grammar  the  ablest  statesmen  had  leapt 
into  office.  They  were  spoken  of  as  the  highroads  to 
greatness  and  power. 

Recently  doubt  had  arisen  as  to  their  sacredness, 
their  supremacy,  and  their  monopoly  of  wisdom  and 
thought,  culture  and  education.  For  many  of  the 
youth  of  the  poor  and  unprivileged  had  begun  to  show 
great  aptitude  for  them,  whilst  the  gilded  youth 
groaned  under  the  burden  of  their  acquisition.  But 
ihe  intellect  of  the  nation  was  on  their  side,  and  still 
more  the  conservatism  of  official  life,  hating,  as  it  does, 
to  learn  some  new  routine.  So  it  was  shown  how  no- 
ble they  were,  how  fit  they  alone  were  to  be  true  in- 
struments of  education,  and  how  a  real  knowledge  of 
the  vernacular  could  be  acquired  only  through  them. 
As  I  read  the  numerous  philippics  against  the  advo- 
cates of  the  new  learning,  I  felt  that  it  would  be 
well-nigh  profanity  to  neglect  these  marvellous  rotten 
tongues. 

Once  I  knew  how  much  depended  on  them,  I  entered 
on  their  acquisition  with  great  zeal,  and  found  it  an 
easier  task  than  learning  the  grammars  and  dictionaries 
of  tone,  and  gesture,  and  facial  expression.  I  had  been 
bilingual  in  my  youth,  speaking  in  the  dialect  of  my 
mother  and  writing  literarj^  English  ;  and  thus  new 
languages  came  easily  to  me.  My  teacher  swelled  with 
pride  over  my  progress,  though  I  think  he  had  little 
to  do  with  it.  But  my  success  in  this  lessened  his  la- 
bours in  teaching  me  the  shadings  of  his  own  tongue, 
for  it  minimised  my  despair. 

And  something,  indeed,  was  needed  to  overcome 
my  aversion  to  the  subleties  of  their  overspeech.  Cau- 
tious as  my  pedagogue  was  in  introducing  me  to  new 


30  Riallaro 

sections  of  it,  I  was  almost  daily  stumbling  into  them. 
One  day,  thinking  to  put  him  into  good  humour,  I  had 
referred  to  him  as  a  great  scholar  ;  I  was  startled  to 
find  him  grow  red  as  if  at  an  insult  ;  and  he  had  to 
show  me  that  the  attitude  I  had  been  in  (I  had  been 
leaning  my  forehead  on  my  forefinger)  had  turned  the 
word  into  "  addlehead."  Another  day  I  spoke  of  him 
as  "  well-bred,"  with  the  same  result  ;  and  he  had  to 
explain  to  me  that,  blowing  my  nose  as  I  had  been  at 
the  time,  I  had  made  the  word  mean  "  nincompoop." 
And  he  had  to  initiate  me  into  the  whole  by-play  of  the 
handkerchief ;  it  took  me  days  to  master  the  infinite 
variety  of  meaning  conveyed  by  its  varied  manipula- 
tion. By  ladies  it  was  not  so  frequently  used  ;  the 
scent-bottle  took  its  place.  And  by  its  aid  the  gentler 
sex  could  woo,  propose,  and  win  with  as  great  ease  as 
the  other  and  with  far  less  indiscretion  in  word. 

There  was  not  an  ornament  or  free  appendage  about 
fashionable  dress  but  was  brought  to  bear  in  the 
expression  of  shades  of  thought  and  emotion — the  eye- 
glass, the  key-ring,  the  chatelaine,  the  fan,  the  shoe- 
tie,  the  garter  ;  the  slightest  motion  of  each  of  these 
was  pregnant  with  meaning,  and  a  mistake  in  their 
use  might  lead  to  serious  consequences  ;  for  almost 
ever}'  word  contained  in  germ  senses  that  were  often 
contradictory.  The  word  for  "good"  also  meant 
"feeble"  or  "silly,"  that  for  "vice"  also,  meant 
"pleasure."  The  same  word  stood  for  "heaven" 
and  "  the  purgatory  of  fools,"  another  for  "  well- 
born" and  "  idiot,"  another  for  "  gentlemanly  "  and 
"inconsiderate,"  another  for  "well-mannered"  and 
"  apish,"  and  still  another  for  "  genius"  and  "  luna- 
tic." So  love  and  lust,  fashion  and  gas,  insult  and 
courage,  fornication   and   marriage,  harlot  and   mes- 


The  Language  31 

senger  of  the  deit_v,  deception  and  artistic  power, 
impudence  and  pra3-er,  bankruptcy  and  good  luck, 
illegitimacy  and  the  legal  profession,  beautiful  woman 
and  hag,  sage  and  pedant,  murder  and  nobility,  candour 
and  credulity,  sword  and  stigma,  infallible  utterance 
and  absurd  error,  wdse  saying  and  despicable  thing, 
universal  religion  and  bigotry,  worship  and  play  the 
hypocrite,  to  please  and  to  conjure,  to  knock  down  and 
to  co-operate,  wit  and  vanity,  to  prepare  food  and  to 
embezzle,  courtier  and  pimp,  sacred  rite  and  vexation 
— each  of  these  pairs  had  but  one  expression  for  both. 
I  characterised  the  language  that  could  be  so  double 
in  its  meaning  as  insincere  and  barbarous.  My  school- 
master argued  that  the  two  meanings  were  in  each  case 
naturally  connected  and  that  nothing  so  subtle  or  re- 
fined had  ever  existed  ;  he  hesitated  and  added,  "  ex- 
cept Thribbaty  and  Slapyak.  It  is  the  highest  stage 
of  social  development  to  have  a  language  so  ambiguous 
and  difficult  that  it  takes  the  greatest  wits  to  manage 
it.  Look  at  the  common  people  ;  they  have  but  one 
meaning,  the  more  concrete  and  physical,  for  each 
word  ;  and  the  result  is  boorish  and  superficial."  I 
called  his  attention  to  the  simple  and  direct  significa- 
tion of  the  words  in  the  admired  rotten  tongues.  He 
assured  me  that  I  was  mistaken  ;  great  scholars  had 
shown  how  there  were  depths  beyond  depths  of  reflected 
and  refracted  meaning  in  every  word  of  the  great 
Thribs  and  Slaps.  "  And  was  it  natural  that  two 
peoples  such  as  these,  ignoring,  as  they  did,  nay  de- 
spising, truthfulness  as  a  virtue,  should  leave  their  lan- 
guage so  unrefined,  superficial,  and  straightforward  as 
they  seemed  to  untrained  eyes?  To  tell  the  truth  in 
clear  and  unambiguous  language  is  the  mark  of  bar- 
barity.    It  is  their  very  example  that  has  led  us  to  hide 


3?  Riallaro 

truth  like  a  precious  treasure  in  wrappings  of  subtlety. 
We  shrink  from  exhibiting  her  to  vulgar  eyes.  It 
would  be  but  sacrilege.  And  our  greatest  investiga- 
tors have  shown  a  priori  that  nations  like  the  Thribs 
and  Slaps  could  not  have  existed  without  overspeech 
like  ours  to  express  the  subtle  shades  of  emotion  and 
thought." 

There  still  lingered  in  me  grave  doubts  whether,  it 
this  were  the  contribution  of  the  rotten  tongues,  they 
had  been  of  anj'  great  service  to  the  nation.  It  had 
already  puzzled  me  to  think  that  a  people  who  glorified 
truth  (calling  their  land  Aleofane,  as  the}'  often  ex- 
plained to  me,  "  the  gem  of  truth")  should  take  as 
their  model  two  ancient  nations  that  held  this  virtue 
but  lightly,  that  it  should  almost  deify  purity  of  life 
and  modest}',  and  3'et  bring  up  its  youth  on  two  liter- 
atures that  laughed  at  these.  The  moral  ideals  of  this 
\)eople  had  been  the  scorn  of  the  Thribs  and  Slaps. 

But  I  had  not  command  enough  of  the  language  to 
express  these  thoughts,  and  I  had  to  accept  his  apology 
for  the  rotten  tongues.  I  was  soon  able  to  adorn  my 
conversation  with  fragments  of  them  and  roll  Thribbaty 
and  Slapyak  words  and  phrases  off  with  unctuous  gusto, 
as  if  they  settled  every  question.  It  was  a  great  satis- 
faction to  feel  that  without  intellectual  effort  one  could 
knock  down  his  opponent  in  argument  by  a  quotation, 
however  little  one  understood  it.  And  it  gave  one  a 
blessed  sense  of  superiority  to  rattle  off"  a  long  word  or 
phrase  that  others  could  not  understand. 

After  I  had  gained  skill  in  the  use  of  the  speech  and 
the  overspeech  and  the  rotten  tongues  I  thought  my 
task  was  done.  But  I  found  there  was  almost  as  much 
to  learn  before  I  could  enter  into  their  highest  social 
life.     Assisted  by  a  posture-master,   he  initiated  me 


The  Language  33 

into  all  the  niceties  of  fashionable  conduct.  I  had  to 
learn  the  methods  of  address  to  every  caste  in  society 
and  to  every  rank  in  official  life.  The  most  reveren- 
tial terms  were  employed  very  freely  :  "  Your  noblest 
highness  in  the  universe,"  "  Your  most  serene  god- 
ship,"  "Your  most  beautiful  ladyship  upon  earth," 
"  Your  most  reverent  of  all  sages."  I  protested  against 
the  indiscriminate  use  of  such  fulsome  flattery.  But  it 
was  explained  to  me  that  all  this  was  neutralised  in 
the  next  section  of  deportment.  I  was  taught  to  re- 
verse or  cancel  every  compliment  I  was  paying  by  a 
peculiar  use  of  the  facial  features  as  I  bowed.  I  could 
even  turn  the  flattery  into  a  curse  when  I  had  become 
skilled  enough  in  the  practice  of  oaths  and  oath- 
making  gestures.  I  w^ondered  how  it  was  possible  to 
conceal  from  the  person  addressed  such  reversal  of 
compliments  paid  to  him.  And  here  the  posture-master 
stepped  in.  He  told  me  I  must  be  ignorant  of  the 
barest  elements  of  deportment,  when  I  did  not  know 
how  to  bear  the  body  in  addressing  high  social  func- 
tionaries. He  laughed  at  my  innocence  in  thinking 
that  we  should  turn  face  to  face  and  bow  or  shake 
hands.  That  had  been  the  custom  in  ancient  and  bar- 
barous times,  before  the  great  period  of  King  Kallip}^- 
ges  and  his  queen.  But  for  generations  the  proper 
method  had  been  to  turn  back  to  back  and  bow  grace- 
fully ;  and  if  the  two  wished  to  show  special  fervour, 
they  then  ran  butt  at  each  other.  This  monarch  had 
had  a  most  repulsive  face,  whilst  both  he  and  his  queen 
looked  magnificent  from  behind.  Hence  the  change. 
I  did  not  dare  to  laugh.  But  it  was  a  hard  task  to 
conceal  my  amusement  when  he  explained  that  one  of 
the  most  delicate  attentions  a  superior  could  pay  to 
an  inferior  was  to  face  round  after  the  preliminary 


34 


Riallaro 


posterior  bow  and  raise  the  point  of  the  right  shoe  to 
his  nether  garments.  It  took  me  several  weeks  to 
acquire  ease  in  all  these  details  of  deportment. 

And  it  was  well  that  I  had  learned  them  and  reduced 
them  to  commonplace  by  familiarity.  For  when  my 
old  pedagogue  and  cicerone  led  me  into  society,  the 
sight  of  the  posterior  bowings  and  scrapings  was  almost 
too  much  for  me. 


CHAPTER  V 


ALEOFANIAN   SOCIETY   AND   RELIGION 


LIKE  their  language,  their  social  fabric  was  an  in- 
tricate work  of  art,  and  it  took  me  months  to 
understand  even  its  elementary  lessons  and  principles. 
It  had  the  qualities  of  all  great  products  of  nature  or 
human  industry  ;  its  structure  at  the  first  glance  was 
simple  and  clear  ;  but  it  would  have  taken  the  lifetime 
of  Methuselah  to  study  out  its  meanings  and  principles. 
Those  who  belonged  to  the  inner  circles,  of  course, 
knew  the  whole  code  of  conduct;  but  they  kept  a  judi- 
cious silence  on  disputed  points,  and  nearly  all  points 
were  disputed.  It  was  perfectly  simple,  they  said  ;  in 
fact,  they  would  not  condescend  to  explain  the  obvious. 
I  was  perpetuall}^  meeting  difficulties,  but  they  smiled 
a  superior  smile  and  let  me  flounder.  Even  my  old 
tutor  threw  mystery  round  the  topic  and  indulged  in 
smiling  silence  over  my  bewilderment.  I  have  little 
doubt  that  what  seemed  paradox  and  contradiction  to 
me  was  to  them  clear  and  harmonious. 

The  first  principle  of  their  life  was,  I  was  assured 
on  all  sides,  devotion  to  truth.  The  name  of  their 
country,  Aleofane,  meant,  they  insisted,  the  gem  of 
truth.  Every  statement  they  made  was  prefaced  with 
an  appeal  to  truth  in  the  abstract,  and  ended,  if  it  were 

35 


36  Riallaro 

of  any  length,  with  an  apostrophe  to  the  deity  as  the 
god  of  truth.  Their  favourite  oaths  had  reference  to 
the  virtue  of  truthfulness.  Their  greatest  heroes  never 
told  a  lie,  as  the  tombstones  and  biographies  showed  in 
letters  of  gold.  Their  commonest  form  of  asseveration 
was,  "  May  all  the  spirits  of  dead  truth-speakers  test- 
ify," or  "  In  the  name  of  all  who  have  been  great  and 
truthful."  And  in  every  one  of  their  courts  of  law  and 
witness! ng-pl aces  there  was  a  copy  of  their  sacred 
books  ;  and  this  had  grown  greasy  with  the  kisses  of 
myriads  of  these  Aleofanians,  swearing  upon  it  to  the 
truth  of  what  they  said.  Nay,  the  expletive  that 
entered  into  every  second  phrase  of  conversation  — 
"  dyoos" — was  the  popular  remains  of  a  prayer  that 
perdition  might  catch  their  souls  if  thej^  did  not  speak 
the  truth. 

I  had  found  an  ideal  people.  This  was  my  reflection 
as  I  discovered  how  deep  was  their  reverence  for  truth 
— so  candid  were  the)^  and  yet  so  courteous.  With  my 
own  crude  knowledge  of  their  language  and  conven- 
tions, I  was  ever  stumbling  into  some  too  candid  state- 
ment that  my  tutor  advised  me  to  withdraw.  That 
was  but  a  small  check  to  my  great  joy  in  finding  a 
people  so  sincere,  so  removed  from  all  falsit}-.  Wher- 
ever I  went  I  found  statues  of  Truth  or  of  the  heroes  of 
truthfulness  ;  there  were  temples  and  shrines  specially 
devoted  to  Her  worship  ;  and  the  sacred  books  of  the 
people  were  the  embodiment  of  absolute  truth  concern- 
ing the  universe.  Some,  if  not  most,  of  the  historical 
statements  in  these  and  all  of  their  representations  of 
the  laws  and  processes  of  nature  had  been  challenged 
by  latter-day  investigators  as  contrary  to  fact.  But 
the  priests  and  theologians  had  amply  shown  how  these 
writers  had,  with  their  eyes  blinded  and  uninspired, 


Aleofanian  Society  and  Religion     2>7 

taken  the  crude  superficial  sense  and  failed  to  penetrate 
beneath  the  veil  under  which  the  truth  sheltered  itself 
from  the  profane  gaze.  Dail}^  they  prelected  on  the 
hidden  meaning  of  their  inspired  literature  ;  but  the 
people  were  so  convinced  of  the  greatness  of  truth  and 
the  safeness  of  the  hands  to  which  absolute  truth  had 
been  intrusted,  that  few  or  none  ever  listened  to  these 
prelections,  for  if  any  went  to  hear  them,  they  fell 
promptly  asleep  in  order  to  show  how  unquestioning 
was  their  faith.  It  was  one  of  the  most  convincing 
testimonies,  I  was  assured,  to  the  inspiration  of  their 
sacred  books  and  the  supremacy  of  Aleofanian  worship 
— this  child-like  trust  of  the  people;  nay,  I  have  heard 
priests  declare  that,  as  they  read  or  spoke  their  de- 
fences of  the  absolute  truth  of  their  religion,  the  nasal 
confession  of  implicit  faith  that  rang  through  the 
temple  seemed  to  them  like  the  trumpets  of  heaven 
proclaiming  theirs  the  only  true  creed  on  earth.  Ah  ! 
the  devotion  of  these  men  to  truth  !  Nothing  could 
stand  in  its  way.  Their  predecessors  in  former  ages 
had  tortured  with  the  greatest  ingenuity,  disem- 
bowelled, roasted  alive  the  deniers  or  questioners  of 
the  truth  of  their  tenets,  so  much  did  they  love  that 
truth.  And  these  guardians  of  it  would  have  done  the 
same  but  for  the  sweetness  and  nobleness  of  their  court- 
esy and  forbearance.  They  went  so  far  as  to  hold  that 
even  the  precepts,  if  not  the  spirit,  of  their  absolute 
truth  must  be  disregarded  at  times,  when  dealing  with 
those  who  would  throw  doubt  upon  it.  What  was 
there  to  compensate  for  its  loss  in  life,  if  once  it  were 
allowed  to  be  questioned?  "Truth  first  and  all  the 
world  after  "  was  a  favourite  saying.  And  they  con- 
sidered that  the}'  might  violate  all  the  temporal  and 
local  laws  and  forms  of  truth  in  order  to  preserve  intact 


38 


Riallaro 


and  undoubted  truth  absolute,  seeing  that  they  had  it 
amongst  them  in  written  form.  It  was  all  for  the  good 
of  the  race  and  the  creed,  i.  e.,  the  ultimate  good  of  the 
whole  universe.  Little  wonder  that  the  Aleofanians, 
whether  dead  or  alive,  could  sleep  at  peace  within  the 
temple  walls  !  ' '  The  truth  must  be  believed  in  by  all 
even  at  the  cost  of  truth  "  ;  this  was  the  motto  of  these 
noble  guardians  of  the  faith. 


CHAPTER  VI 


ALEOFANIAN  DEVOTION  TO  TRUTH 

MY  admiration  grew  as  I  gradually  discovered  how 
everything  in  this  wonderful  country  gave  way 
before  this  great  virtue.  It  was  the  first  lesson  taught 
the  child  ;  it  was  the  last  injunction  of  the  dying  Aleo- 
fanian  to  his  friends  as  they  stood  round  his  death-bed. 
Every  other  book  that  was  published  had  this  as  a 
moral,  that  truth  would  prevail  ;  all  their  biography 
and  history  had  this  as  their  ultimate  teaching  ;  the 
schoolbooks  were  compiled  with  this  in  view  ;  the 
copy-books  had  as  their  headlines  the  favourite  proverbs 
on  the  theme,  such  as  "  Tell  the  truth  and  shame  the 
fiends,"  "  Nothing  but  truth  will  butter  your  bread," 
"  The  root  of  all  evil  is  untruth,"  "  Truth  is  the  good 
man's  friend,  the  sinner's  foe,"  "  Truth  is  her  own  re- 
ward." The  popular  songs  and  lyrics  had  this  virtue 
as  their  chief  stock-in-trade,  for  embellishments  and 
even  for  topics.  "True,  true,  love"  was  the  parrot 
note  of  all  the  songsters.  Beauty  was  but  the  other 
side  of  truth,  truth  the  only  claim  to  beauty.  All 
sentiment  played  round  the  loyalty  and  candour  of 
friends.  On  the  tombstones  were  the  headlines  from 
the  copy-books  and  the  texts  from  the  sacred  writings 
that  dealt  with  eulogy  of  the  virtue.     The  graveyard 

39  o 


40  Riallaro 

was  a  perfect  school  of  the  prophets.  So,  too,  was 
every  hoarding  and  blank  wall  ;  for  every  seller  of 
goods  lavishly  advertised  their  "  truth." 

I  had  grave  embarrassments  when  I  came  to  look  at 
the  practice  of  the  people  in  this  light  that  beat  upon 
their  lives.  But  these  were  owing  to  my  ignorance  of 
the  language  and  the  conventions.  At  every  new  para- 
dox I  felt  I  was  a  mere  novice. 

I  had  changed  my  place  of  residence  to  a  public 
hostelry  in  the  marble  city  as  soon  as  mj^  tutor  thought 
I  was  sufiicientl}^  instructed  not  to  shock  people  by  my 
alien  speech  or  ways.  I  had  found  no  difficult}^  in 
negotiating  and  paying  when  I  lived  in  the  district  of 
the  poor.  Now  I  misunderstood  every  week  some  term 
of  the  agreement,  and  the  mistake  always  turned  out 
to  my  disadvantage.  It  showed  the  selfishness  of  my 
European  human  nature  that  I  should  always  have  in- 
terpreted the  words  to  my  own  benefit.  And  the  cor- 
rection was  made  with  such  courtesy,  and  so  many  and 
so  profouse  apologies  that  I  rejoiced  at  the  mistake  as 
an  opportunity  of  revealing  the  noble  natures  of  the 
hosts.  They  never  lost  their  good  temper  and  suavity, 
however  often  they  had  to  correct  these  financial  blun- 
ders on  my  part.  I  began  to  feel  that  the  ambiguity 
of  their  language  was  a  wise  provision  of  nature  for 
bringing  out  the  perfection  of  their  manners  in  dealing 
with  strangers  and  for  allowing  them  to  compensate 
themselves  financially  for  their  forbearance.  My  bills 
were  generally  double  what  I  expected  them  to  be  ; 
but  I  considered  myself  amply  repaid  by  the  gracious 
manner  in  which  I  was  set  right.  The  geometrical 
progression  of  my  cost  of  living  compelled  me  reluct- 
antly to  change  my  hostelry  from  time  to  time,  and  bid 
farewell  to  numerous  suave  and  apologetic  hosts. 


Aleofanian  Devotion  to  Truth      41 

I  could  have,  if  I  had  desired,  spent  all  my  sojourn 
after  the  first  few  weeks  in  private  houses,  so  profuse 
was  the  offer  of  hospitality.  It  was  a  grievous  thing 
to  each  host,  as  he  proffered  me  the  kindness,  that 
just  at  that  moment  his  house  was  in  disorder  ;  in  fact 
it  was  in  process  of  getting  renewed  and  prepared  for 
my  reception,  and  he  would  not  dishonour  me  by  ask- 
ing me  to  come  during  such  a  period  of  confusion.  At 
last  the  invitations  were  so  many  that  I  dared  not  ac- 
cept any  one  lest  I  should  have  to  accept  all  ;  and  it 
would  have  taken  the  lifetime  of  a  Methuselah  to  fulfil 
the  engagements.  How  deeply  they  grieved  over  this, 
they  kept  reminding  me.  And  their  grief  was  ever 
driving  them  to  my  hostelry  and  rooms  that  they  might 
pour  it  out  over  my  well-laden  table.  I  shall  not  soon 
forget  the  fervour  with  which  they  shared  in  my 
victuals  for  my  sake  and  performed  the  dorsal  saluta- 
tion. I  never  had  such  a  multitude  of  true  friends  in 
my  life.  Each  would  deal  with  me  as  if  we  were  the 
only  two  beings  in  the  whole  world  worth  a  thought, 
and  as  if  nothing  could  untie  the  knot  of  friendship. 
What  looks  of  admiration  they  dealt  me  !  At  the  close 
of  every  interview  I  felt  how  great  and  good  we  both 
were,  what  a  genius  I  was,  what  a  noble  fellow  he  was. 
And  so  devoted  did  many  of  them  become  to  me  as  a 
friend  that  they  overcame  their  sense  of  dignity  so  far 
as  to  borrow  from  me.  I  was  weighed  down  with  the 
great  burden  of  honour  that  was  heaped  upon  me. 

The  greatest  embarrassment  from  the  wealth  of  their 
friendship  was  the  number  of  those  that  claimed  it. 
Each  social  circle,  each  member  of  it,  came  to  daggers 
drawn  with  every  other  over  me.  And  I  began  to  feel 
mj^self  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  of  beings,  to  have 
introduced  such  internecine  strife  amongst  so  peaceful 


42  Riallaro 

and  noble  a  people.  I  thought  at  times  that  the  whole 
of  the  upper  classes  were  on  the  verge  of  civil  war  over 
me,  and  that  there  would  soon  be  universal  bloodshed 
and  annihilation.  But  the  gentleness  of  their  natures 
and  the  ambiguity  of  their  tongue  again  stood  them  in 
good  stead.  They  went  so  far  as  charging  one  another 
with  the  sin  that  was  unpardonable  amongst  them,  that 
of  lying.  But  it  turned  out  to  be  only  a  misunder- 
standing in  each  case  ;  the  double  meaning  of  their 
words  was  a  special  provision  of  nature  for  keeping  the 
peace.  They  fell  on  each  other's  neck  and  wept. 
Oh,  how  blessed  was  the  equivocalness  of  the  Aleofan- 
ian  tongue  !  When  everj'thing  had  been  settled 
amicably,  most  of  them,  to  prove  their  friendship  and 
devotion  to  me,  took  another  loan  from  me.  And  I 
was  fully  compensated  by  the  grace  with  which  they 
conferred  the  favour. 

As  great  generosity  did  they  show  in  dealing  with 
the  reputations  of  their  neighbours  and  fellow-citizens. 
It  was  cheering,  indeed,  to  my  feeling  of  human  kind- 
ness to  hear  them  eulogise  each  other.  Even  the 
marvellous  riches  of  their  vocabulary  were  found  scant 
in  the  expression  of  their  mutual  love  and  admiration. 
Their  ancestors  had  laid  out  much  of  their  great  talent 
for  eulogy  on  the  manufacture  of  language  for  it,  and 
especially  of  titles  of  address.  They  had,  as  it  were, 
established  out  of  their  linguistic  wealth  a  great 
national  bank  of  panegyric  ;  and  any  one  of  the  people 
of  the  marble  city  might  draw  upon  it  at  any  moment 
and  to  any  extent,  so  nearly  boundless  were  its  re- 
sources. I  have  now  none  of  that  false  modesty  which 
is  encouraged  in  your  civilisation  to  shrink  from  the 
estimation  or  statement  of  one's  own  merits,  because  I 
have  ceased  to  have  any  egotism  or  over-consciousness 


Aleofanian  Devotion  to  Truth      43 

of  myself  ;  and  yet  to  this  day  I  hesitate  to  quote  some 
of  the  methods  of  address  used  to  me  and  the  encom- 
iums passed    upon  me.     It  was  only  their   profanity 
that   prevented   me    from   bursting   into   laughter   at 
their  exaggeration.     I  was  classed  with  the  divinities  ; 
the  attributes  of   godhead  were  applied  to  me.     "  O 
celestial  person,"  "  O  propitiable  refuge  of  the  world," 
were  amongst  the  least  offensive.     But  I  am  bound  to 
say  that,  when  I  went  into  the  higher  ranks  of  society, 
especially  into  the  court,  I  found  them  most  impartially 
peppered  over  the  company.     And  it  was  in  the  same 
lavish  spirit  that  the  fixed  titles  of  the  nobility  and 
other  ranks  had  been  measured  out.     They  seemed  to 
be  proportionate  to  the  acreage  of  the  lands  from  which 
the  nucleus  of  each  was  drawn.     There  was  a  law  that 
superiors  were  to  be  allowed  to  reduce   them  to  one 
thou.sandth  part  of  their  usual  size,  and  equals  to  one 
hundredth  part,   except  on  ceremonial  occasions.     It 
was  passed  after  a  great  social  upheaval  in  which  the 
political  faction  called  The  Economisers  of  Time  won 
the  day.     It  would  never  have  succeeded  but  for  a  new 
king  who  by  the  death  of  many  intermediate  claimants 
to  the  throne  had  been  raised  out  of  comparative  ob- 
.scurity,  and  who  delighted  in  outraging  the  proprieties. 
Moreover,  he  was  somewhat  asthmatic,  and  royal  in- 
terviews had  often  to  be  postponed  indefinitely  because 
the   royal   lungs   broke   down  in  the  middle  of  some 
official's  name.      Even  after   so   many  generations  it 
was  keen  agony  for  most  of  the  nobility  to  hear  the 
monarch   address   the   Serene  Superintendent   of  the 
Royal  Vaults  as  Nip,  or  the  Grand  Deputy  Supervisor 
of   the  Royal  Laundry  Women  as  Tubby,    the  mere 
preliminary   syllables   of  their  acre- broad  names.     It 
was  occasionally  a  relief  to  get  into  the  lower  ranks  of 


44  Riallaro 

this  noble  society,  for  then  the  difficulty  of  remember- 
ing and  uttering  the  names  of  the  people  I  met  was 
complicated  only  by  a  few  hyphens. 

But  here,  too,  hosannas  rang  in  every  term  of  address 
and  every  opening  sentence.  And  thus  having  hand- 
somely credited  their  neighbours  and  friends  with  so 
much,  they  felt  that  the  debit  side  of  life's  account  was 
all  the  larger.  It  was  a  sharp  agony,  they  each  told 
me,  to  lay  bare  the  faults  of  those  whom  they  so  much 
loved  and  admired;  but  it  was  their  painful  duty  so  to 
do.  How  could  the  state  be  cured  of  its  evils  if  this 
was  not  done  ?  How  could  spiritual  pride  be  subdued 
if  the  faults  of  men  were  not  laid  bare  ?  It  was  a  world 
of  sorrow  and  care,  and  they  had  their  full  share  of  it  in 
thus  serving  their  friends  and  fellows.  I  had  therefore 
the  character  of  every  man  and  woman  whom  I  came 
to  know  faithfully  analysed  from  a  hundred  different 
points  of  view.  And  though  at  times  ni}'  critical 
friends  seemed  to  enjoy  the  anatoni}^  of  others,  it  was, 
I  was  assured,  only  as  the  surgeon  enjoj^s  his  own  skill 
when  he  works  with  his  knife  in  cutting  out  malignant 
growths.  They  were  indeed  most  skilful  anatomists 
of  character.  But  it  was  all  in  the  wa}^  of  discipline  ; 
they  had  to  disparage  those  who  were  praised  too 
much,  and  sow  scandal  about  those  who  had  too  good 
reputation  lest  that  vile  contagion  of  pride  should  fall 
on  the  community.  It  was  an  agonising  duty  to  per- 
form, but  they  had  performed  it  without  flinching  ;  and 
they  had  already  poured  balm  upon  the  coming  wounds 
by  preliminary  eulogies  drawn  from  the  ancestral  stock 
of  curative  panegyric. 

Most  of  their  social  institutions  and  conduct  had 
some  disciplinary  purpose.  I  often  saw  men  and 
women  meet  their  friends  with  a  frown  or  pass  them 


Aleofanian  Devotion  to  Truth      45 

by  with  gloom  on  their  faces.  On  asking,  I  found  it 
was  generally  to  cure  the  spiritual  pride  or  some  other 
defect  in  these  friends  that  this  sadness  was  assumed. 
I  wondered,  too,  at  the  minute  division  into  social 
circles  that  professed  to  be  rigidly  exclusive,  but  really 
overlapped,  and  at  the  haughty  scorn  with  which  a 
member  of  one  a  step  higher  in  the  scale  would  treat 
some  other  citizen  who  seemed  to  me  infinitely  his 
superior  in  both  morals  and  manners,  if  not  also  in  in- 
tellect and  capacity.  I  found  that  all  this  was  based 
on  the  same  principle.  The  spirits  of  men  and  women 
had  to  be  preserved  from  defect  that  the  state  might 
remain  secure.  This  was  the  true  scheme  of  nature 
that  each  man  should  be  his  brother's  keeper  ;  and  by 
these  fences  and  folds  they  kept  their  brothers  apart 
so  that  they  might  be  draughted  up  or  down.  And  in 
order  to  keep  these  fences  ungapped  they  had  to  exer- 
cise their  hauteur  and  scorn.  How  many  unhappy 
hours  they  gave  themselves  thus  for  the  good  of  their 
brethren  and  the  state  !  What  brotherly  love,  what 
patriotism  shone  behind  the  frown  upon  their  brow  or 
the  curl  of  the  lip  or  the  effort  to  point  their  long  noses 
heavenward  !  It  was  especially  evident  in  all  large 
gatherings  of  the  purest  blood  of  the  marble  city  ;  for 
then  the  moral  spread,  the  lesson  had  its  fullest  eifect. 
The  minute  gradations  of  social  life  represented  in 
the  shades  of  this  mutual  discipline  puzzled  me  even 
more  than  their  dictionaries  of  overspeech.  I  could 
never  reach  solid  ground  in  them.  Once  I  thought  I 
had  found  the  very  innermost  social  circle,  where  none 
could  curl  the  lip  at  another.  It  included  the  family 
of  the  king  and  the  monarch  himself.  I  was  speaking 
with  some  intimacj-  to  the  highest  noble  of  this  grade, 
and  remarked  to  him  in  a  confident  tone  that  I  supposed 


46  Riallaro 

the  king  and  he  were  the  noblest  efflorescence  of  this 
world's  aristocracy.  "  A}',  if  only  that  blot  had  not 
smirched  the  royal  pedigree  a  thousand  years  ago," 
slid  out  of  the  curling  lips.  What  a  gidd}-  pinnacle 
he  seemed  to  stand  on,  this  king-scorning  aristocrat  ! 
He  must  have  longed  for  other  worlds  to  scorn  and 
patronise  and  discipline.  Mere  human  insignificance 
was  too  far  beneath  him  to  exercise  his  nasal  elevation 
upon.  I  dared  not  affront  him  by  revealing  my  ignor- 
ance of  his  ancestry.  But  I  at  once  assumed  that  it 
was  divine,  when  it  could  produce  such  sublimity  of 
social  solitude  and  noble  blood. 

It  was  a  height  which  must  have  intoxicated  him 
to  think  of.  For  he  had  only  to  turn  to  the  literature 
of  his  nation  to  see  it  assumed  that  not  only  had  there 
never  been  a  nobler  people  upon  earth,  but  that  accord- 
ing to  reasoning  from  first  principles  there  could  not  be 
another  to  surpass  it.  This  fundamental  axiom  was 
never  overtly  stated  except  in  controversial  pamphlets 
that  had  been  issued  against  the  contemptible  claims 
of  nations  in  other  islets  of  the  archipelago.  But  in 
their  science  and  philosophy  it  was  the  tacit  foundation 
of  all  reasonings  and  conclusions.  Every  scientist  in 
making  observations  of  nature  or  basing  a  law  upon 
them  had  in  his  mind  as  an  undisputed  truth  that  this 
world  was  the  only  world  that  was  worth  considering, 
and  that  Aleofanian  nature  was  nature  absolute  ;  what 
other  peoples  did  or  saw  differently  was  abnormal,  a 
mere  departure  from  the  scheme  of  creation.  Every 
economist,  much  as  he  might  disagree  with  others,  ever 
agreed  with  them  in  this  :  that  the  system  of  industry 
and  wealth  and  classes  that  then  existed  in  Aleofane 
was  the  final  economical  system  of  human  society  ;  it 
might  be  and  must  be  modified  in  details,  but  its  great 


Aleofanian  Devotion  to  Truth      47 

central  principle  was  the  only  one  that  could  keep 
mankind  in  proper  gradation  and  subordination.  Phi- 
losophy investigated  Aleofanian  humanity  and  systems 
and  analysed  the  Aleofanian  mind  that  it  might  show 
forth  the  divine  plan  of  the  universe.  As  for  art,  what 
else  was  worth  admiring  than  what  the  Aleofanians 
admired  ?  And  bj'  the  Aleofanians  was  meant  those 
of  them  who  were  in  society.  The  philosophers  had 
only  to  get  at  the  abstract  principle  that  lay  behind 
Aleofanian  music  and  architecture,  painting  and  sculp- 
ture, and  they  would  have  the  final  secret  of  beaut}', 
the  ultimate  principle  of  all  art. 

The  only  thing  that  shocked  me  almost  past  recovery 
was  the  application  of  this  axiom  to  the  sphere  of  re- 
ligion. Brought  up  as  I  had  been,  a  Christian  amongst 
Christians,  I  felt  that  I  had  only  to  state  to  them  the 
great  and  undisputed  doctrines  and  the  practical  pre- 
cepts of  Christianity  to  make  them  turn  from  their 
idolatry  of  other  gods,  and  their  crude  ideas  of  wor- 
ship. What  was  my  surprise  and  anguish  to  find  even 
the  most  vulgar  and  least  educated  amongst  them  turn 
on  me  with  a  patronising  smile  and  deal  with  me  as  if 
I  were  a  child  or  a  mild  lunatic  who  had  got  adrift  and 
had  to  be  shepherded !  They  would  not  condescend  to 
argue  with  me,  and  as  I  reiterated  or  argued,  they  only 
laughed  louder  at  my  simplicity.  I  had  at  last  to  cease 
speaking  of  my  own  religion  and  suffer  my  agony  in 
silence.  It  was  true  that  they  were  split  up  into  in- 
numerable .sects,  and  many  utterh*  denied  the  existence 
of  their  gods  ;  but  the  sectarians  were  winked  at  or 
perhaps  loftily  scorned  :  for  they  at  least  accepted  the 
fundamental  tenets  ;  whilst  the  atheists  were  endured, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  the  Aleofanian  gods  they  denied 
and  thus  made  superior  to  the  false  gods  of  other  races. 


4$  Riallaro 

Some  two  thirds  of  the  population  never  entered  the 
doors  of  the  great  temples  ;  but  there  was  much  satis- 
faction in  feeling  that  they  entered  the  temples  of  no 
other  gods,  and  that  all  their  incomes  gave  evidence  of 
their  devotion  to  the  Aleofanian  worship  by  contribut- 
ing one  tenth  each  year  for  its  support  through  the 
state  treasury.  The  other  third  of  the  population  were 
directly  or  indirectly  interested  in  the  temple  revenues  ; 
ever}^  family  had  one  member  at  least  drawing  a  large 
salary  from  it  by  honouring  it  with  his  presence  once 
or  twice  a  year  as  superintendent  when  its  worship  was 
proceeding. 

The  principle  of  the  religion  was  self-denial  ;  but  as 
one  of  their  soundest  philosophers  had  shown  that  all 
the  world  was  practically  included  in  the  self  or  ego, 
inasmuch  as  thought  was  the  perpetual  creator  of  the 
world,  and  the  chief  element  of  the  ego  was  thought, 
the  inconveniences  of  the  principle  were  avoided  with- 
out sacrificing  any  of  its  glory  or  integrity.  Their  de- 
sires and  appetites  formed  but  an  infinitesimal  fraction 
of  a  self  that  included  the  whole  planet,  and  an  act  of 
devotion  once  a  year  was  more  than  enough  to  fulfil 
the  duty  of  self-denial.  The  other  and  larger  portion 
of  the  self,  consisting  chiefly  of  other  people,  they 
gladly  mortified  and  denied  and  sacrificed  ;  such  in- 
cense was  ever  rising  from  the  altars  of  their  gods. 
The  priests  who  performed  the  services  and  inculcated 
the  precepts  and  explained  the  tenets  showed  in  their 
emaciated  frames  and  starved  families  how  great  the 
sacrifice  of  the  deputy-self.  Forgers,  embezzlers, 
debtors  who  could  not  pay  their  debts,  and  in  short  all 
financial  criminals  were  allowed  to  expiate  their  sins 
by  devoting  themselves  for  life  to  the  service  of  a 
temple  for  little  or  nothing,  generally  the  latter.    Thus 


Aleofanian  Devotion  to  Truth      49 

no  people  in  the  world  did  so  much  for  the  central  prin- 
ciple of  religion,  that  of  self-sacrifice. 

Not  that  the  gilded  race  delegated  all  the  duty. 
They  lavished  their  wealth  upon  the  art  of  the  temples. 
The  altars  shone  with  precious  marbles  and  stones  ; 
brilliant  mosaics  covered  the  floors  and  the  walls  ;  the 
domes  were  frescoed  by  the  greatest  painters  and  niched 
by  the  best  sculptors.  Some  of  their  temples  were  so 
noble  and  spacious  and  adorned  that  the  value  of  an 
empire  seemed  spent  on  them,  and  the  poor  human 
voice  of  the  priest  as  he  prayed  or  prelected  sounded  like 
the  buzzing  of  a  fly  on  a  distant  window-pane.  And  the 
robes  that  hung  upon  the  framework  of  the  skeleton-offi- 
ciator  were  stiff  with  jewelry  and  brocade.  It  happened 
occasionally  that  one  of  the  wealthy  superintendents  of 
religion  had  a  gift  of  oratory,  and  then  you  would  find 
his  well-fed  outlines  filling  the  gorgeous  vestments  and 
his  luxurious  voice  filling  his  temple  and  drawing 
crowds.  And  there  again  the  self-sacrifice  came  in  ; 
every  follower  of  his,  especially  of  the  opposite  sex,  gave 
up  time  and  money  to  his  welfare  ;  and  great  fortunes 
were  spent  on  this  act  of  worship.  The  garments  of 
the  worshippers  displayed  as  gorgeous  art  as  the  temple 
itself  that  all  might  be  in  unison  in  pleasing  the  gods. 

But  most  of  all  were  the  gods  supposed  to  be  pleased 
by  efforts  to  persuade  the  outer  world  to  their  creed. 
The  zealous  were  greatl}'  troubled  at  the  obstinac}-  of 
the  peoples  of  the  other  islets,  who  refused  to  turn 
from  their  own  shade  of  piety  and  belief  ;  I  was  assured 
that  they  were  sunk  in  depravity  and  sin  ;  for  millions 
had  been  spent  on  their  conversion,  and  in  the  long 
years  only  a  few  had  been  gathered  into  the  fold.  But 
these  few  were  so  well-kept  and  prosperous  that  they 
became   shining   examples   to   their   infidel  brethren. 


50  Riallaro 

Ah,  the  fervour,  the  devotion,  the  self-sacrifice,  the 
millions  lavished  upon  these  aliens  !  One  nuist  have 
been  valued  as  much  by  the  gods  as  a  thousand  Aleo- 
fanians  brought  up  to  the  Aleofane  worship.  For  tens 
of  thousands  huddled  together  in  the  fold,  heedless  of 
their  own  spiritual  welfare,  ignoring  the  existence  of 
the  temples,  starving,  unkempt,  and  ragged.  Never 
were  the  grimy  mob  permitted  to  soil  the  precincts 
of  the  hol}^  places,  or  to  mar  the  beauty  of  the  art  dis- 
played in  them  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  marble  cit}'. 
To  see  the  squalor  of  the  labouring  horde,  I  was  told, 
would  have  cancelled  the  noblest  acts  of  their  artistic 
worship,  would  have  made  the  gods  to  faint. 

I  have  spoken  of  their  gods  ;  but  they  would  have 
held  it  profanity  so  to  speak.  They  had  been  poly- 
theists  in  prehistoric  times,  and  the  missionaries  who 
had  introduced  monotheism  had  been  astute  enough  to 
take  the  best  of  their  deities  and  find  them  in  the  qual- 
ities of  the  one.  The  generations  of  subtle  divines  that 
came  between  had  solved  all  the  difficulties  of  having 
many  deities  rolled  into  one,  so  that  the  Aleofanian 
mind  found  it  no  sacrilege  to  deify  a  dead  hero  or  erect 
a  shrine  to  one  of  their  prehistoric  deities,  whilst  they 
persecuted  to  the  death  anyone  who  dared  to  deny  the 
unity  of  godhead.  Just  as  there  were  myriads  of  stars 
and  but  one  cosmos,  so,  they  said,  there  were  innumer- 
able manifestations  of  the  deity  and  but  one  god.  They 
were  ashamed  of  the  polytheism  of  their  ancestors,  and 
as  converts  to  the  true  faith  would  have  no  slur  upon  it. 
Men  might  have  no  creed  if  they  pleased  ;  but  if  they 
had  a  creed,  it  must  be  in  one  god  and  his  religion. 
Their  theologians  had  discussed  for  centuries  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  various  old  gods  and  new  saints  coal- 
esced into  one;  but  none  of  them  had  the  folly  to  deny 


Aleofanian  Devotion  to  Truth       51 

the  unity.  There  had  been  and  still  existed  a  score 
or  more  of  theological  schools,  each  of  which  agonised 
over  the  stupidity  and  unreasonableness  of  the  rest  in 
their  explanation  of  the  unification.  The  dominant 
school  used  to  roast  or  rack  their  heresies  out  of  their 
opponents  ;  they  still  roasted  and  racked,  but  only 
socially  and  politically  ;  the  spirit  was  as  true  to  zeal 
for  the  one  faith,  only  the  method  had  changed.  And 
their  library  shelves  groaned  with  volumes  of  anathe- 
mas reasoned  or  unreasoned. 

They  prided  themselves  on  their  perfect  command 
of  reason  ;  they  could  adapt  it  to  any  purpose,  so 
skilled  had  they  become  in  its  use.  And  they  assumed 
as  a  first  principle  of  conduct  that  they  had  reached  the 
final  truth  on  all  things  in  earth  or  heaven.  Only 
reason  could  teach  truth  ;  and  they  alone  of  all  people 
in  the  world  had  master}^  of  reasoning.  The  common 
beliefs  of  the  nation  were  therefore  absolute  truth  ;  and 
each  acted  on  the  maxim  that  what  he  persuaded  him- 
self of  was  unconditioned  truth.  Amongst  a  less  subtle 
people  this  would  have  meant  continual  quarrel  ;  but 
with  them  the  ambiguity  of  their  language  stepped  in 
as  peacemaker.  A  disagreement  never  came  to  any- 
thing serious  ;  it  was  alwa3's  found  to  be  a  misunder- 
standing of  words. 

They  had  no  need  to  state  this  syllogism  to  them- 
selves ;  it  was  at  the  foundation  of  their  conduct  and 
beliefs.  They  scorned  the  art,  the  literature,  the  philo- 
sophy of  all  other  peoples  as  poor  trivial  monstrosi- 
ties, permissible,  of  course,  in  a  world  of  variety  like 
ours,  but  ridiculous  in  the  extreme.  It  was  useless  for 
a  stranger  like  myself  to  criticise  them  and  their  civil- 
isation ;  I  was  only  wasting  my  breath  and  affording 
them  occasion  for  laughing  at  my  inordinate  vanity. 


^M^mMmmm^. 


CHAPTER  VII 


SOCIAI.   CUSTOMS 


THE  first  time  that  I  went  to  a  high-rank  social 
entertainment  of  theirs,  I  broke  into  a  hearty 
laugh  at  the  spectacle  as  I  entered  ;  but  I  came  to 
regret  my  imprudence.  There  were  the  select  of 
the  marble  city,  including  the  royal  family,  turning 
Catherine- wheels  round  the  room  in  pairs  to  the 
sound  of  quick  music  ;  ev^en  fat  old  dowagers  with 
bombasted  breeches  on  kept  up  the  frantic  exercise, 
the  perspiration  pouring  from  their  brows.  It  was  a 
large  room  lit  with  hundreds  of  lamps,  and  round  it 
again  and  again  each  pair  had  to  roll,  and  as  I  looked 
at  the  stately  nobles  and  dames  head  downwards  my 
thoughts  turned  back  to  the  street  arabs  of  my  native 
land  and  their  cry,  "  Stand  on  my  head  for  a  penny," 
and  I  burst  again  into  a  laugh.  My  guide  and  intro- 
ducer ignored  the  first  ;  but  at  the  second  he  .turned 
round  on  me  with  questioning  surprise.  I  was  soon 
sobered,  and  turned  away  to  smother  my  amusement. 
Another  friend  came  up  to  greet  me,  and  he  at  once 
burst  into  loud  admiration  of  the  scene.  "  Was  it  not 
noble  ?  It  was  the  finest  flower  of  all  art  to  see  the 
most  beautiful  and  high-blooded  of  men  and  women 
letting  their  souls  forth  in  harmony,  glowing  with 

52 


Social  Customs  53 

colour  and  life  ;  surely  this  was  the  sight  of  sights  ;  it 
was  the  very  poetry  of  motion  ;  what  grace!  what 
beauty  and  roundedness  of  calf  !  was  it  not  joy  to  see 
the  fair  twinkling  feet  in  the  air,  and  in  a  moment 
so  the  solid  floor  again,  pair  with  pair  ?  It  was  indeed 
the  music  of  the  spheres,  this  revolution  of  the  ex- 
tremities round  the  centre  of  gravity  ;  it  was  a  copy  of 
the  motion  of  the  great  universe,  sex  with  sex  in  uni- 
son pointing  alternate  head  and  feet  to  the  zenith. 
Where  else  in  the  world  could  such  a  spectacle  be  seen  ? 

I  acknowledged  with  as  much  gravity  as  I  could 
command  that  I  had  never  seen  anything  like  it.  And 
I  must  concede  that  after  a  time  the  whirl  of  bodies,  as 
the  music  quickened,  half  intoxicated  my  judgment 
and  made  me  almost  long  to  join  in  the  general  somer- 
sault ;  the  rhythm  of  so  many  feet  and  heads  flying 
through  the  air  fired  my  blood  to  fever  heat,  and  as  I 
looked  on,  my  sense  of  the  absurdity  of  the  scene 
entirely  disappeared  ;  I  became  a  partisan  of  the  exer- 
cise and  could  see  nothing  but  grace  and  harmony  in 
it.  I  felt  almost  ashamed  of  my  burst  of  laughter, 
though  afterwards,  when  I  retired  to  my  hostelry  and 
cooled  down,  the  sense  of  incongruity  returned,  and  I 
laughed  heartily  at  the  memory  of  haughty  aristocrats 
standing  on  their  heads,  and  the  legs  of  shrivelled 
dowagers  revolving  like  spokes  of  a  wheel. 

I  found  on  inquiry  that  a  considerable  portion  of 
their  youth  was  spent  in  acquiring  ease  at  this  indoor 
exercise.  Women  especially  gave  the  best  of  their 
days  and  nights  to  "  fallallaroo,"  the  name  by  which 
they  called  this  art  of  rhythmical  gyration,  for  they 
found  it  was  their  best  means  of  ingratiating  themselves 
with  the  promising  young  men  ;  and  most  of  the  re- 
solves   to  marry   were    formed  in  the  meetings  for 


54  Riallaro 

fallallaroo.  It  was  said  by  some  phj'sicians  to  produce 
certain  common  diseases,  but  the  gilded  society  held 
that  it  was  productive  of  health  ;  they  knew  so  from 
their  own  experience.  Even  the  old  men  and  women 
with  grey  hair  and  shrunken  shanks  kept  up  the  ex- 
hausting exercise,  for  to  leave  it  off  was  universally 
considered  the  sign  of  approaching  age.  It  had  been 
introduced  b}^  a  monarch  who  had  suffered  from  vertigo 
and  St.  Vitus' s  dance,  but  tradition  had  hallowed  it 
and  poetr}'  had  surrounded  it  with  romance.  And 
now  it  would  have  been  like  tearing  up  the  roots  of 
society  to  abolish  it. 

Another  custom  that  was  considered  almost  sacred 
tried  my  nerves  still  more.  The  men  usually  wore  a 
bamboo  behind  their  right  ear,  and  whenever  they 
were  at  leisure,  and  as  often  when  they  were  not,  they 
would  take  it  out  and  fill  one  end  with  the  dried  leaves 
of  a  vile  plant  called  kooannoo,  not  unlike  a  coprosma, 
and  in  smell  pure  assafoetida,  and  lighting  it,  stick 
the  other  end  into  one  of  their  nostrils.  Every  ex- 
piration of  breath  sent  forth  a  cloud  of  smoke  and  every 
inspiration  drew  some  of  it  in  ;  but  they  had  grown  so 
expert  in  the  practice  that  they  could  always  prevent 
it  getting  into  the  mouth  or  the  throat,  even  when 
they  were  talking  vigorously.  The  smell  was  some- 
thing intolerable,  and  reminded  me  of  burning  heaps 
of  rubbish  and  manure.  In  their  more  candid  moods 
and  when  the}''  were  not  themselves  engaged  in  the 
practice,  they  acknowledged  the  likeness,  especially  on 
going  into  the  lower  quarters  of  the  citj'  ;  for  there,  in 
order  to  produce  the  fashionable  flavour  and  smell,  the 
kooannoo-sellers  were  accustomed  to  steep  broad  leaves 
in  mire  for  a  time,  and  drying  them  make  them  up  as 
kooannoo  ;   nay,  some  of  the  poor,  when  they  could 


Social  Customs  55 

not  afford  to  buy  the  leaf,  openly  stuck  pieces  of  dried 
earth  into  their  bamboos  and  lit  them,  and  many  of 
them  adhered  to  the  practice  when  they  were  better  off, 
preferring  the  flavour  and  smell  to  those  of  the  fashion- 
able leaf. 

I  was  surprised  at  the  agonies  the  young  men  under- 
went in  learning  the  loathsome  habit,  such  nausea  and 
pallor  and  misery  overspread  their  whole  frame;  and  it 
was  only  by  the  loss  of  all  delicacy  of  smell  and  taste 
that  they  at  last  mastered  the  loathing  and  qualms;  no 
refined  senses  could  live  within  reach  of  the  smoke.- 
It  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  acts  of  heroic  stoicism 
on  the  part  of  the  nation  ;  they  assured  me  that  it  was 
one  of  their  disciplines  for  the  subjugation  of  the  body. 
But  it  acted,  as  most  of  their  disciplines  did,  in  an 
altruistic  way  ;  it  had  destroyed  the  fine  sensations  of 
the  kooannooers  themselves  ;  but  their  neighbours, 
who  had  not  learned,  and  especially  women,  suffered 
daih'  the  agonies  of  disgust.  And  the  agonies  were 
undergone  without  a  murmur,  nay,  with  a  smile  upon 
the  face,  for  the  practice  was  almost  universal  amongst 
the  highest  class  and  in  the  royal  family. 

The  origin  was  difficult  to  get  at.  But  it  seems  that 
in  some  past  age  a  number  of  the  younger  sons  of 
aristocratic  families  had  gone  out  in  search  of  advent- 
ure ;  and  during  a  period  of  great  straits  they  had 
learned  from  a  tribe  of  savages  to  eat  and  burn  kooan- 
noo  in  order  to  subdue  the  pangs  of  hunger.  When 
they  got  food  at  last,  they  felt  proud  of  an  accomplish- 
ment that  they  had  learned  with  so  much  agony,  and, 
as  they  had  ceased  to  suffer  from  it,  they  brought  it 
home  with  them  amongst  other  practices  copied  from 
the  wild  men.  Their  wonderful  adventures  made  them 
the  fashion  ;  and  all  the  youths  set  themselves  to  copy 


56  Riallaro 

this,  the  most  striking  of  their  habits,  counting  it  as  the 
truest  mark  of  manliness  and  courage.  Having  ac- 
quired it  with  so  much  sufifering  and  difficult}',  they 
would  not  easily  give  it  up  when  it  had  ceased  to  dis- 
gust them.  When  kooannooing,  they  could  sit  silent 
with  dignity  whilst  others  talked  ;  and  it  gave  them  a 
certain  semblance  of  superiorit}-  to  others,  as  they  kept 
the  red  in  their  cheeks  whilst  others  around  who  did 
not  use  the  bamboo  grew  pale  and  sick.  They  felt 
masterful  and  heroic  as  thej'  kooannooed,  like  the 
voyager  who  can  resist  the  approach  of  seasickness 
when  his  fellows  succumb.  So  the  habit  carried  with 
it  a  certain  overbearing  rudeness  and  want  of  consider- 
ation for  others.  Generation  after  generation  of  youth 
had  come  to  count  it  as  the  distinctive  mark  of  man- 
hood ;  and  having  learned  the  practice  with  great 
suffering  they  could  not  forego  the  sense  of  triumph 
over  those  who  had  not  learned  it  ;  they  were  the 
braves  of  the  nation  ;  not  to  bamboo  was  a  sign  of 
womanliness  and  delicacy  of  feeling;  and  men  who  in- 
dulged such  refinement  and  weakness  ought  to  be  dis- 
ciplined along  with  the  women  ;  they  were  intolerant 
with  their  fine  sensations  ;  the  world  would  not  be 
worth  living  in  if  they  had  their  way  ;  it  was  time 
something  was  done  to  bring  them  into  order.  And 
these  kooannooers  felt  most  heroic  and  manly  as  they 
followed  their  loathsome  practice.  And  most  of  the 
women  endured  their  stinking  breath  and  clothes  and 
the  agonies  of  nausea  and  headache  in  silence,  or 
rather  with  the  pretence  that  the  habit  was  most  de- 
lightful. There  was  something  in  what  they  said,  that 
it  soothed  the  men  and  put  them  into  better  humour  ; 
for  when  a  kooannooer  had  a  bamboo  in  his  nose  he 
wore  a  self-complacent  smile;  he  felt  manly  and  superior 


Social  Customs 


57 


without  the  expenditure  of  any  effort  ;  his  vanity  was 
flattered.  Of  course  a  number  who  did  not  bamboo 
showed  that  the  leaf  acted  as  a  poison  and  slowly 
sapped  the  health.  But  scientific  kooannooers  replied 
that  small  doses  of  the  poison  killed  nothing  but  the 
germs  of  disease.  They  bambooed  for  the  good  of  the 
public  ;  they  were  the  national  sanitarians  and  fumiga- 
tors.  It  showed  how  patriotic  they  were,  when  they 
persevered  in  the  practice,  though  they  knew  that  it 
tended  to  destroy  the  germ  of  manners  as  well  as  of 
diseases.  These  kooannooers  were  the  most  self- 
denying  of  philanthropists. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


W 


ABSTINENCE 


HY   should  thev  refrain  from  the  srifts  that 


them  ?  "  Thus  argued  a  party  of  gilded  ^-outh  with 
me  as  the}-  polecatted  the  air  of  a  gorgeous  room  with 
their  bamboos.  M}'  senses  had  so  far  resisted  the 
paralysing  fume  aiid  its  nausea  that  they  were  able  to 
fumble  about  amongst  arguments.  And  I  tried  to 
break  their  backs  with  their  own  rod.  "  Why  did  the 
Aleofanians  abstain  so  rigidly  from  God's  good  gift, 
the  juice  of  the  grape  ?  "  "  You  have  got  the  stick  by 
the  wrong  end,"  they  laughed.  And  the  bell-wether  of 
them  took  up  the  tale.  ' '  God's  gift  is  transformed  into 
poison  by  fermentation — "  "And  so  is  kooannoo  by 
fire,"  I  broke  in.  "  But  pyranniddee  "  (so  they  called 
their  intoxicating  spirit)  "  is  seductive  ;  kooannoo  is 
repulsive  ;  the  one  will  master  the  strongest  man  ;  the 
other  has  to  be  mastered."  I  acknowledged  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  distinction,  but  urged  that  all  pleasures 
and  pains  in  time  suffer  transmutation  into  their  oppo- 
sites  ;  a  habit,  that  in  its  nascence  is  pleasing,  becomes 
loathsome  in  its  supremacy,  and  one  that  is  hard  to 
learn  gratifies  the  vanity,  if  not  the  senses,  when  mas- 
tered ;  the  stoic  rampant  revels  in  his  stoicism  and  goes 

58 


Abstinence  59 

to  all  lengths  with  it  ;  the  epicurean  has  soon  skimmed 
the  cream  of  his  luxuries  and  has  to  suppress  all  his 
other  natural  needs  and  desires  like  a  stoic  that  he 
may  still  the  violence  of  his  overgrown  appetites  or 
give  them  some  hard-won  novelty  ;  I  envied  the  stoic 
his  epicurean  enjoyment  of  his  victory  over  life  and 
passion;  I  pitied  the  epicurean  wallowing  in  the  world, 
that  sty  of  desire,  all  its  best  and  most  luscious  things 
trampled  under  foot.  "  But  we  have  chosen  a  plant  to 
bear  whose  fumes  must  ever  demand  resolution —  "  I 
unhinged  his  sentence  with,  "  Yes,  in  those  who  can- 
not indulge  in  it. "  "  You  speak  truly, ' '  he  said,  ' '  and 
therein  lies  the  nobleness  of  the  choice  ;  it  is  the  great 
philanthropic  plant;  it  is  for  the  discipline  and  matura- 
tion of  others  that  kooannooers  sacrifice  their  finer 
sensations."  This  discussion  would  have  fallen  into  a 
scramble  of  wits  ;  for  it  was  hard  by  any  means  to  get 
the  better  of  the  subtlety  of  this  people.  So  I  held 
my  peace.  And  as  I  listened,  I  learned  and  admired. 
The)'  were  too  wise  and  virtuous  to  tope  and  guzzle 
and  carouse.  They  would  not  steep  their  senses  in 
sottish  oblivion.  The}'  would  have  no  dealings  with  a 
poison  that  sapped  the  will  and  made  the  human  sys- 
tem all  throat  and  liquid  fire.  Who  would  turn  his 
inwards  into  a  chemist's  alembic,  his  skull  into  a  vat  ? 

I  had  heard  eloquence  like  this  in  my  own  country 
and  cowered  before  the  tornado  ;  I  knew  there  could  be 
no  safety  but  in  flight. 

They  were  indeed  a  most  ascetic  people  in  all  but  the 
use  of  words.  I  tried  in  the  first  two  or  three  hostelries 
to  obtain  a  little  wine  ;  but  the  attempt  had  such  a 
paralj'sing  effect  on  mine  hosts  that  I  had  to  refrain. 
Anything  that  even  smelt  of  fermentation  was  a  horror. 
It  is  true  I  had  seen  many  wine-presses  and  distilleries 


6o  Riallaro 

in  the  lower  part  of  the  town.  But,  it  was  explained, 
their  products  were  meant  for  the  vShops  of  chemists  and 
for  use  in  the  preservation  of  fruit  and  museum  speci- 
mens. No  freeman  was  allowed  to  touch  the  accursed 
thing  ;  only  criminals  and  bondsmen  were  permitted 
within  the  walls  of  these  factories  of  the  Stygian  fluid, 
and  then  only  under  superintendence  of  government 
agents,  who  commanded  the  position  from  smell-proof 
view-points  afar,  lest  even  a  whiff  of  the  Tartarean  brew 
should  reach  their  nostrils. 

I  now  understood  wh}'  these  x\leofanians  when 
analysing  the  character  of  their  neighbours  always  in- 
troduced, as  the  climax  of  the  latter  or  depreciatory 
part  of  their  analysis,  devotion  to  museums  and  to 
fruit-preserving  ;  and  in  the  nearest  approach  I  had 
seen  two  make  to  a  quarrel,  the  one  hurled  at  the 
other  the  epithet  "  Olekloman,"  or  museumist,  and 
got  in  reply,  "  Poolp,"  or  fruit-preserver,  whilst  both 
reddened  as  if  stung.  No  house  in  the  marble  city  was 
without  a  large  room  devoted  to  natural  history  ;  every 
man  was  an  enthusiastic  collector  of  biological  speci- 
mens, and  in  this  room  there  were  long  rows  of  shelves 
of  scarabsean  bottles,  each  filled  with  some  clear  liquid 
in  which  floated  a  bug  or  centipede  or  some  small  para- 
site. They  were  as  enthusiastic  orchardists,  and  gener- 
ally spent  a  third  of  the  year  in  bottling  the  fruits  of 
their  trees.  Autumn  was  the  time  of  their  most  up- 
roarious festivals  and  maddest  junketings.  This  sober, 
staid,  and  abstinent  people  broke  loose  like  bacchanals. 
The  fruit  they  indulged  in,  they  explained,  fermented 
within  them. 

It  was  almost  a  painful  spectacle  for  me  after  the 
admiration  I  had  felt  for  their  self-abnegation.  They 
had  such  a  horror  for  all  fermented  liquor  that  they 


Abstinence  6i 

called  their  devil  and  it  by  the  same  name,  pyrannidee. 
And  one  of  the  wise  men  philosophising  over  the  an- 
nual outbreak  of  high  spirits  said  that,  according  to 
their  own  proverbial  philosophy,  the  best  way  to  con- 
fine a  devil  was  to  swallow  him  and  to  keep  him  down  ; 
he  might  pester  the  man  who  formed  his  prison-house, 
but  he  would  be  kept  from  all  other  wickedness.  Thus 
the  autumn  revel  of  merriment  was  perhaps  but  another 
instance  of  the  great  virtue  of  the  people,  their  eager- 
ness to  save  their  neighbours  from  evil.  They  annu- 
ally swallowed  the  devil  to  prevent  him,  for  a  short 
time  at  least,  from  going  about  like  a  roaring  lion 
seeking  whom  he  might  devour. 

At  other  times  of  the  year  I  often  found  them,  men 
as  well  as  women,  sitting  in  their  houses  and  shedding 
copious  tears  over  the  sadness  of  this  mortal  state  ;  so 
overwhelmed  were  they  with  the  thought  that  their 
words  jostled  one  another  in  strange  confusion  ;  and  if 
they  rose  to  bid  me  farewell,  they  fell  upon  my  neck 
and  wept,  or  collapsed  in  the  greatness  of  their  grief 
upon  the  couch  or  floor.  This  tenderness  of  heart  was 
widespread  amongst  the  upper  classes  ;  for  days  would 
they  weep  thus  over  the  woes  of  existence.  And  still 
more  unmanning  was  their  sorrow  for  the  death  of 
friends  ;  thej^  would  sit  stupefied  by  the  blow  for  hours 
together,  unable  to  speak  articulately  ;  and  a  whole 
week  or  month  of  sickness  and  silent  confinement  to 
their  bedroom  would  follow  the  stroke.  How  sorely 
stricken  this  people  were  I  could  not  have  realised  but 
by  my  experience  ;  the  death  of  a  dear  friend  occurred 
on  an  average  once  a  month  in  the  life  of  some  fashion- 
able Aleofanians  at  certain  periods  of  the  year,  but 
especially  during  the  severe  season,  winter.  And  when 
they  rose    from    bed  and   appeared  in  public,    their 


62  Riallaro 

haggard,  woebegone  faces  told  the  agonj^  through 
which  they  had  passed.  Surely  fate  was  too  hard  upon 
this  much-bereaved  nation.  As  hard  was  it  upon  their 
teeth  ;  for  the  loss  of  a  tooth  under  ether  or  stupefying 
gas  was  equally  frequent  ;  one  friend,  whom  I  had  to 
see  often,  suffered  grievously.  I  counted  during  my 
acquaintance  with  him  fortj^-five  losses  of  a  tooth  under 
ether.  But  nature  was  strangely  beneficent  to  the 
Aleofanian  jaw  ;  she  seemed  to  compensate  for  the 
losses  almost  immediately  :  my  friend  had  as  many 
teeth  when  I  left  as  when  I  saw  him  first. 

And  with  all  these  recurrent  bereavements  and  the 
illnesses  that  followed,  you  may  imagine  how  import- 
ant a  functionary  was  the  physician  in  social  life.  He 
was  the  father-confessor  of  the  household.  He  was 
generally  a  soft-voiced,  stooping-shouldered,  silent- 
footed  man.  He  condescended  and  yet  he  flattered  ; 
he  insinuated  himself  into  a  man's  confidence,  and  still 
more  into  a  woman's,  by  veiled  compliments  ;  he  mas- 
tered by  seeming  to  accept  his  patient's  opinions  ;  he 
prescribed  what  suited  the  appetites  and  desires  ;  the 
subtlety  of  the  race  rose  to  its  highest  in  his  profession, 
so  skilfully  had  he  to  adapt  himself  to  the  weaknesses 
of  his  clients  ;  he  knew  all  the  secrets  of  the  household 
and  built  his  omnipotence  upon  them  ;  he  had  a 
feminine  manner  and  a  feminine  vein  in  his  character, 
judgment  and  action  through  instinct,  and  .a  passion 
for  the  minutenesses  of  life  ;  and  yet  he  piloted  his  way 
into  the  master}^  of  the  family  through  the  women, 
who,  in  spite  of  his  womanliness,  adored  him  ;  for  he 
had  learned  by  long  tradition  and  training  how  to  make 
them  abandon  themselves  body  and  soul  to  his  direc- 
tion ;  their  pains  he  knen  .  ■ ;  to  soothe  b}-  anodynes  ; 
their  troubles  and  sorrows  he  made  them  forget  by 


Abstinence  63 

either  spiritual  or  physical  consolation ;  he  surrounded 
them  with  an  atmosphere  of  belief  in  themselves  and 
him  as  the  two  select  of  the  world  ;  he  quarantined 
them  from  all  other  influences  by  flattery  or  pyranni- 
dee  ;  he  dosed  them  with  well-sweetened  gossip  made 
powerful  by  being  communicated  in  confidential  whis- 
pers and  with  oaths  to  secrecy  ;  for  he  had  command  of 
all  the  inner  workings  of  the  private  life  of  a  neigh- 
bourhood ;  and  it  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  his  power 
that  most  of  the  families  which  he  confessional  led  were 
not  on  speaking  terms  with  one  another  ;  he  was  al- 
ways sacrificing  himself  to  bring  about  peace,  and  each 
of  them  trusted  him  entirely  ;  yet  human  nature  is  so 
prone  to  jealousy  that  they  refused  his  mediation  and 
only  listened  to  his  soft-voiced  details  of  the  inner  life  of 
their  foes.  What  would  the  higher  social  life  have  been 
in  Aleofane  without  this  silent-footed  intermediary  ! 

The  chemist  fulfilled  the  same  important  function  for 
the  poorer  classes.  He  sold  the  pyrannidee  that  the 
government  factories  made  ;  but  he  was  restricted  to 
using  it  for  the  cure  of  disease  and  the  assuagement  of 
])ain.  And  most  of  the  grown-up  population  had  a 
disease  to  be  cured  and  a  pain  to  be  assuaged  every 
day,  so  sorely  smitten  were  they  by  fate,  so  long-suffer- 
ing were  they.  It  was  one  of  the  sights  of  the  city  to 
see  the  kolako  or  the  warehouses  of  the  chemists  at 
night  ;  crowds  pressed  into  them  by  one  door  with 
agony  depicted  on  their  faces,  whilst  out  from  the  other 
sauntered  patient  after  patient  with  a  wandering, 
nerveless  smile  upon  his  face,  a  jaunty,  loose-gaited 
fashion  of  throwing  his  limbs,  and  a  whiff  of  pyranni- 
dee in  his  breath  ;  for  if  it  was  not  the  medicine  itself  it 
was  the  medium  of  it,  and  he  had  left  his  pain  behind 
him  in  the  store.     Little  wonder  that  the  chemist  was 


64  Riallaro 

a  man  of  such  power  in  Aleofane  ;  he  was  generally  of 
strong  build  and  iiwaggering  gait  and  showed  his 
masterfulness  in  every  gesture  ;  for  he  had  often 
severe  muscular  duties  to  perform  ;  it  seems  that  some 
of  his  patients  of  the  most  abandoned  and  criminal 
classes,  after  being  cured  of  their  pain  or  sickness,  re- 
fused to  leave  his  warehouse  ;  seized  by  an  evil  spirit, 
I  was  told,  they  would  foam  at  the  mouth,  kick,  and 
bite  ;  and  it  took  great  strength  to  tie  them  hand  and 
foot  and  eject  them.  Some  of  my  friends  in  the  marble 
city  mourned  over  this  possession  by  wandering  demons 
of  the  air  ;  but  they  said  it  was  only  the  degraded 
whose  bodies  they  entered. 

The  profession  was  one  of  the  most  lucrative  in  Aleo- 
fane, for  one  of  its  essentials  was  great  physical  strength, 
and  this  was  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  gilded  classes. 
I  could  pick  out  chemists  in  a  crowd  by  their  brawny 
frame,  bold  gait,  and  short,  well-knit  stature.  Their 
faces  were  as  a  rule  strong  and  corrugated  with  muscle 
and  tense  self-control  ;  they  looked  with  an  open  and 
almost  arrogant  light  in  their  ej'es.  Most  of  them,  I 
was  told,  were  descendants  of  a  few  survivors  from  a 
wreck  on  the  coast,  and  there  was  occasionall)^  a  lurk- 
ing fear  that,  with  their  great  influence  over  the  lower 
part  of  the  city,  their  strong  will,  and  their  powerful 
squat  frame,  they  might  seize  the  reins  of  government  ; 
but  this  was  prevented  by  dividing  their  interests  and 
sowing  dissensions  and  jealousies  amongst  them  ;  the 
very  largeness  of  the  incomes  they  made  lowered  their 
ambitions  towards  money-making ;  and  this  made  them 
fly  asunder  like  globules  of  quicksilver. 

But  the  contrast  between  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
upper  classes  in  physical  appearance  was  very  striking. 
The  Aleofanians  proper  stooped  in  the  shoulders  of 


Abstinence  65 

their  long,  thin  bodies  like  bulrushes  before  the  wind  ; 
not  for  weight  of  the  head  they  bore  ;  for  it  was  small 
though  well  proportioned,  and  by  various  fashions  and 
contrivances  they  managed  to  convey  a  false  impres- 
sion of  its  size  ;  of  their  eyes  it  was  impossible  to  make 
out  the  shape  or  colour  ;  for  they  peeped  through  a 
thin  slit  between  the  eyelids,  doubtless  afraid  of  the 
glare  of  the  sun  ;  their  nose  ran  like  a  sharp  promon- 
tory down  towards  the  middle  of  their  upper  lip,  as  if 
to  help  in  covering  the  enormous  aperture  of  the  mouth 
and  its  thick,  sensuous  lips  ;  these  last  I  could  see  in 
the  women,  but  the  men  concealed  them  by  all  the  hair 
they  could  grow  on  their  long-drawn  faces  ;  and  their 
hair  inclined  as  a  rule  to  red.  Their  gait  formed  per- 
haps the  deepest  contrast  to  that  of  the  chemists  ;  they 
walked  like  ghosts,  with  a  feline,  scarcely  perceptible 
footfall  ;  and  nothing  could  take  them  unawares  or 
startle  them  out  of  it  ;  yet  ever  and  again  some  of 
them  would  pull  themselves  up  and  put  on  a  bustling 
gait  and  bluff  demeanour  that  completely  belied  their 
personal  appearance  ;  it  was  like  a  cat  masquerading 
as  a  lion. 

But  thej^  conducted  themselves  with  great  dignity 
iu  all  the  relations  of  their  life.  They  would  have  no 
part  in  the  gross  candour  of  the  chemists.  Their  whole 
demeanour  and  language  were  ordered  with  full  regard 
to  decency  and  decorum.  They  shrank  with  horror 
from  lewdness  and  intrigue,  and  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  existence  of  libertines  amongst  them.  I  never 
heard  so  much  solemn  and  devout  feeling  expressed  as 
on  this  topic  ;  and  at  the  corner  of  every  street  the  at- 
tention of  the  passer-by  was  arrested  by  placards  quot- 
ing in  huge  letters  from  their  sacred  books  the  noblest 

maxims  on  the  sweetness  of  a  chaste  life.     I  could  find 
5 


66  Riallaro 

no  one  to  confess  that  there  was  such  a  thing  in  the 
island  as  a  man  who  was  libidinous,  but  ever)'  girl  who 
broke  this  rule  of  morality  was  thrust  forth  from  house 
and  home.  Scores  of  such  outcasts  I  saw  flaunting  in 
brilliant  robes  along  the  streets.  Thej'  had  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  living  in  great  luxury.  But  I  was  assured 
they  were  supported  by  secret  funds  sent  by  the  in- 
habitants of  a  vicious  island  close  at  hand.  And  I 
could  believe  it.  For  no  one  ever  spoke  to  them,  and 
ladies  as  they  passed  drew  their  skirts  in,  whilst  gentle- 
men after  brushing  past  them  would  rub  their  coat- 
sleeves  as  if  from  contamination.  It  was  only  the  great 
chastity  of  the  people  that  permitted  these  creatures  to 
remain  in  their  island.  Nothing  could  surpass  the 
horror  and  loathing  which  the  Aleofanians  exhibited 
towards  them.  It  was  painful  indeed  to  see  the  agony 
the  notables  had  to  endure  in  suffering  them  to  remain. 
How  devoted  the}'  were  to  charity  !  It  was,  I  felt, 
their  life,  their  all.  They  refused  to  do  half  the- mis- 
chief that  there  was  opportunity  of  doing  to  others. 
Every  moment,  every  energy,  was  spent  in  restricting 
it  to  this  fraction.  So  much  destructive  force  was 
latent  in  them,  so  much  destructive  opportunity  lay  to 
hand,  that  they  might  have  annihilated  the  reputation 
and  peace  of  mind  of  all  their  fellow-citizens.  How 
proud  thej^  were  of  their  fraternal  love  in  sowing  only 
a  few  slanders  and  dissensions  per  day,  and  these,  too, 
onl)^  to  discipline  the  haughty  and  too  fortunate,  or  to 
keep  their  own  faculties  from  rusting !  It  was  the  same 
with  their  benevolence  ;  nothing  could  surpass  the 
nobleness  and  care  with  which  they  dispensed  it.  Half 
their  revenues  the}'  gave  away,  but  not  in  reckless 
alms  ;  they  were  too  wise  and  self-controlling  for  that  ; 
they  knew  too  much  of  the  economic  laws  of  life,  and 


Abstinence  67 

respected  them  too  well  to  violate  even  the  least  of 
them.  So  they  never  forgot  discipline  in  giving  to 
those  who  needed  ;  they  carefully  exacted  as  much 
work  from  them  as  would  pay  the  principal,  and,  lest 
the  kindness  should  lapse  from  memory  and  leave  no 
impression  on  the  life  and  conduct,  half  as  much  again. 
To  what  infinite  trouble  they  put  themselves  to  see 
that  these  laws  of  nature  should  never  be  outraged  by 
them  !  Great  troops  of  the  lower  classes  were  fed  and 
clothed  and  cared  for  by  each  of  them  for  years,  whilst 
they  were  trying  to  repay  those  noble  eleemosynary 
gifts,  and  satisfying  the  laws  of  economics. 

Nor  must  it  be  held  an  inconsistency  in  them  that 
they  thought  money  the  root  of  all  evil  as  against  those 
verN^  laws.  They  despised  it  and  hated  it.  And  lest 
it  should  do  to  their  neighbours  the  harm  for  which 
they  feared  it  and  loathed  it,  they  gathered  as  much 
of  it  into  their  hands  as  they  could.  "  They  swallowed 
the  devil  "  again,  according  to  their  own  proverbial 
phrase,  as  the  best  means  of  preventing  the  mischief 
he  might  do  to  others.  It  was  one  of  the  most  altruis- 
tic of  their  principles,  they  considered,  this  accumul- 
ation of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  lest  the  many 
should  suffer.  They  could  hedge  the  monster  round 
and  narrow  his  sphere  of  operations.  And  everj'  pro- 
vision had  been  made  by  the  state  for  centuries  that  he 
should  not  approach  the  masses  with  his  foul  influence. 
It  was  the  gilded  classes  of  the  marble  city  that  could 
alone  withstand  the  evils  he  worked,  and  amongst 
them  therefore  was  he  imprisoned.  They  were,  so  to 
speak,  the  turnkeys  of  this  vampire  of  commercial 
races  ;  and  in  their  duties  they  were  all  vigilant  lest 
he  should  escape  and  work  irremediable  havoc  amongst 
the  rest  of  the  nation. 


&!§^MSMM 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   ORCxAXISATION   OF   REPUTE 

THESE  items  of  information  concerning  the  virtues 
of  the  race  I  learned  not  so  much  from  the  dwel- 
lers in  the  marble  city  themselves — they  were  too 
modest  for  that — as  from  public  prints  and  the  placards 
on  hoardings  and  in  public  places.  From  the  same 
sources  I  gathered  innumerable  details  about  the  life 
of  the  monarch  and  the  nobles  and  the  wealthiest  citi- 
zens, and  these  were  always  to  their  credit.  Had  I 
been  as  much  in  the  habit  of  frequenting  their  temples 
or  consulting  the  physicians  as  the  gilded  were,  I  would 
clearl}'  have  gathered  still  more,  for  I  never  heard  a 
sermon  or  prayer  or  piece  of  medical  advice  in  Aleofane 
but  it  contained  or  was  accompanied  by  an  elaborate 
eulogy  of  some  one  or  more  of  the  marble  citizens  be- 
sides a  general  exaltation  of  all  of  them. 

I  was  also  struck  with  the  singular  unobtrusiveness 
and  even  modesty  of  their  public  men  ;  the  more  thej' 
were  called  for  at  public  meetings,  the  less  frequenth' 
they  appeared;  the  more  they  were  eulogised  and  feted, 
the  less  eager  did  they  seem  to  be  spoken  of.  Their 
names  were  blazoned  abroad  in  newspapers  and  on 
hoardings,  yet  they  .shrank  from  showing  themselves. 
It  was  a  game  of  hide-and-seek  between  them  and  the 

68 


The  Organisation  of  Repute        69 

people.  Crowds  shouted  for  them  ;  they  ran  off.  Ban- 
quets and  processions  were  held  in  their  honour  ;  they 
were  the  only  men  that  withdrew  from  sight. 

After  a  time  I  noticed  that  it  was  only  a  certain 
round  of  names  that  was  kept  persistently  before  the 
public.  Occasionally  a  new  one  appeared  and  another 
vanished.  But  with  them  all,  as  long  as  they  were  in 
the  line,  it  was  a  sort  of  file-firing  of  reputation  signals. 

I  was  at  last  eager  to  know  what  it  meant,  for  it 
differed  from  anj'  other  social  phenomenon  I  had  ever 
observed.  I  soon  discovered  the  secret  of  it.  There 
was  a  department  of  state  called  the  Bureau  of  Fame. 
At  one  time  reputation  had  been  allowed  to  look  after 
itself,  although  men  valued  it  even  more  than  money. 
Private  enterprise  traded  in  it  and  juggled  with  it  and 
made  a  monopoly  of  its  growth,  although  it  should 
have  moved  as  freely  as  the  air  or  water.  For  a  time 
it  had  been  in  the  hands  of  vendors  of  quack  medicines 
and  soaps  ;  there  were  none  so  well  known  throughout 
the  nation  as  the}'^  ;  there  were  none  whose  names 
would  carry  so  much  weight  wath  the  uneducated 
people.  Simmity,  the  proprietor  of  a  popular  purg- 
ative. Hones,  who  owned  the  most  widely  advertised 
soap,  and  Bulunu,  who  sold  the  strongest  kooannoo, 
might  have  divided  the  monarchy  amongst  them,  had 
they  been  able  to  come  to  an  agreement,  and  thought 
it  worth  while  to  rouse  and  lead  the  mob  for  such  a 
mere  bauble;  as  it  was  the)^  were  both  richer  and  more 
famous  than  the  king  ;  and  what  did  they  require  ? 
Their  descendants  were  now  the  most  powerful  nobles 
in  the  land. 

The  next  stage  in  the  organisation  of  fame  was  to 
grant  to  a  company  the  monopoly  of  all  advertising 
opportunities  in  the  realm.     It  had  long  been  a  scandal 


70  Riallaro 

that  men  with  little  brains,  less  conscience,  and  still 
less  education  had  got  their  names  fixed  in  the  popular 
mind  more  firmly  and  more  widely  than  the  ablest  or 
wealthiest  or  noblest.  It  needed,  little  persuasion  then 
on  the  part  of  the  company  to  precipitate  the  grant. 
And  it  set  itself  at  once  to  organise  all  the  methods  it 
could  invent  for  increasing  reputation.  It  hired  the 
best  poets  and  prose  writers  in  the  kingdom  ;  its  artists 
were  the  most  talented  painters  and  draughtsmen  ; 
whenever  any  boys  or  girls  showed  musical  talent,  it 
bound  them  to  it  by  pecuniary  and  other  chains  ;  every 
demagogue  with  power  of  lung  and  command  over 
words,  every  entertainer  who  could  amuse  the  people, 
every  jester  who  could  make  them  laugh,  every  con- 
triver of  ingenious  methods  of  attracting  attention  it 
had  in  its  pay  and  read)'  at  its  beck.  The  newspapers 
and  journals  with  their  writers  took  instructions  from 
it  ;  for  they  knew  there  was  no  such  good  paymaster 
to  be  found.  It  had  emissaries  and  claqueurs  through 
all  grades  of  the  nation,  mingling  with  their  societ}-, 
leading  their  thoughts,  and  touching  their  emotions. 

A  man  could  go  into  its  office  and  get  a  quotation 
for  any  kind  or  extent  of  fame.  He  could  have  as 
little  as  a  sixpenny-worth,  a  tanna,  it  was  called  ;  this 
consisted  in  a  whisper  set  agoing  in  his  favour  within 
his  own  private  circle.  If  he  wished  his  name  spread 
in  a  grade  or  locality  that  knew  nothing  of  him,  it 
would  cost  him  a  pownee,  about  ten  pounds  in  our 
mone)',  per  month  ;  for  there  was  ever  a  time-element 
in  these  bargains.  The  price  of  keeping  up  a  reput- 
ation increased  till  it  was  firmly  established  ;  then  it 
lessened  till  the  man  pa.ssed  his  vigour  of  faculty  ;  after 
the  grand  climacteric  it  increased  again,  but  more  grad- 
ually than  before  ;  for  the  mystery  of  retirement  and 


The  Organisation  of  Repute         71 

the  tradition  of  a  reputation  passing  into  the  mouths 
of  a  second  generation  gave  a  man's  story  ahnost  the 
vogue  of  a  myth,  and  thus  made  it  easier  for  the  com- 
pany to  keep  up  the  name.  On  death  and  for  a  week 
after,  its  charges  were  lower,  as  the  funeral  and  obituary 
notices  and  the  dark  dresses  and  long  faces  of  the  rela- 
tives kept  the  memory  green  for  about  that  length  of 
time  and  relieved  the  servants  of  fame  of  much  of  their 
onerous  duty.  Thereafter  the  price  rose  till  at  a  hun- 
dred years  after  death  it  became  enormous,  and  at  a 
thousand  it  became  fabulous.  Only  one  had  ever  had 
fortune  large  enough  to  buy  up  his  fame  for  that  post- 
humous period  ;  and  I  still  heard  his  name  on  all  sides 
although  he  had  been  dead  for  twelve  hundred  years. 
The  company  had  made  large  profits  out  of  this  bar- 
gain ;  for  the  uniqueness  of  the  transaction  had  made 
the  name  a  traditional  topic  in  hours  of  leisure  and  a 
commonplace  in  literature  ;  the  natural  channels  of 
fame  had  become  its  unpaid  auxiliaries. 

Every  kind  of  reputation  had  its  own  price  per  day 
or  month  or  year,  though  the  price  varied  from  time  to 
time  according  to  the  rise  or  fall  of  a  particular  virtue 
or  line  of  life  in  public  estimation.  One  item  in  the 
old  price-list  that  amazed  me  was  the  money  value  of  a 
reputation  for  truthfulness  ;  it  was  by  far  the  most 
costly,  and  next  to  it  came  the  reputation  for  generosity, 
and  that  for  purity  of  life.  Surely  it  should  have  been 
easy  to  acquire  the  name  of  truthful  or  generous  or  pure 
in  a  community  that  paid  such  devotion  to  these  virtues, 
and  cultivated  them  so  much.  But,  it  was  explained, 
there  was  of  cour.se  greater  competition  for  fame  in 
them  ;  men  were  especially  eager  to  gain  it,  for  it  gave 
them  full  return  even  in  monej-.  It  struck  me 
that,    where  truth  and  charity  and  chastity  were  so 


72  Riallaro 

widespread,  it  should  have  been  very  easy  to  get  and 
keep  the  name  for  them  ;  high  charges  meant  special 
rarity  in  the  commodity  or  special  difficulty  in  obtain- 
ing it  ;  and  either  seemed  to  argue  widespread  sceptic- 
ism as  to  the  possession  of  these  virtues  But  I  was 
silenced  with  the  argument  that,  where  all  or  most  had 
a  virtue,  it  was  difficult  to  win  a  reputation  for  special 
excellence  in  it. 

The  charges  for  fame  in  each  of  the  virtues  varied 
too  with  the  employment  and  social  grade.  A  journal- 
ist had  to  pay  one  hundred  times  more  than  a  peasant 
or  artisan  for  the  reputation  of  truthfulness.  The  poet 
and  preacher  and  vendor  of  quack  medicines  had  to 
pay  onl}^  one  half  as  much  as  a  newspaper-man  for  it  ; 
for,  it  was  told  me,  they  with  their  clients  were  per- 
fectly well  aware  that  their  profession  was  to  deal  in 
fiction,  and  they  tried  in  unprofessional  life  to  get  clear 
of  the  taint  of  their  trade,  and  took  delight  in  blurting 
out  the  most  candid  truths.  The  highest  price  for 
reputed  sobriety  was  demanded  of  the  temperance 
reformer  and  the  lecturer  on  the  evils  of  drunkenness. 
The  poor  man  and  the  spendthrift  were  charged  next 
to  nothing  for  the  name  of  generous  ;  the  wealthy  had 
to  pay  for  the  same,  enormous  sums  in  proportion  to 
their  wealth  and  social  position.  The  reputation  for 
wit  was  one  of  their  cheapest  commodities,  being  only 
a  little  higher  than  that  for  being  not  a  bad  sort  of  a 
fellow  and  that  for  being  good  but  dull.  And  yet  it 
was  one  of  the  dearest  for  ambitious  young  convers- 
ationalists and  writers  and  orators  and  men  of  the  world. 
It  was  almost  as  dear  as  a  reputation  for  humour  when 
professional  jesters  wished  to  buy  it.  The  price-list 
indeed  was  one  of  the  most  striking  comments  on  the 
past  social  history  of  the  people. 


The  Organisation  of  Repute         73 

What  led  to  the  overthrow  of  this  strange  company 
was  a  very  natural  extension  of  their  business.  They 
opened  a  branch  for  the  destruction  of  fame,  or,  as  they 
called  it,  for  negative  reputation.  Thej^  found  that 
they  had  continual  demands  made  for  this  natural  com- 
plement to  their  other  function.  At  last  they  yielded 
to  the  pressure,  and  tried  to  use  their  old  staff  in  the 
new  service  ;  but  it  was  found  that  it  destroyed  their 
eulogistic  talents  ;  they  rapidly  developed  into  such 
accomplished  slanderers  and  backbiters  and  defamers 
that  they  found  it  difficult  to  say  a  word  in  favour  of 
anyone.  In  order  to  save  the  best  of  their  old  em- 
ployees, the  company  had  to  hire  a  new  set  for  the  new 
business.  They  had  intended  to  keep  it  an  absolutely 
secret  service.  But,  as  the  story  of  the  new  employ- 
ment leaked  out,  their  offices  were  daily  mobbed  by 
applicants  for  posts.  They  were  of  all  sorts  and  sizes  ; 
but  those  who  brought  the  most  glowing  testimonials 
to  their  capacity  as  traducers  were  tall  and  lank,  long- 
nosed  and  large-mouthed,  red-haired  and  small-skulled 
— as  fine  a  crowd  of  Judases,  it  was  said,  as  could  have 
been  picked  out  of  living  creatures.  It  was  impossible 
to  hire  them  all  ;  half  the  nation  would  have  been  in 
the  pay  of  the  compau}-.  But  those  whom  they  re- 
jected set  themselves  so  vigorously  to  traducing  the 
company  that  a  yell  of  execration  rose  against  it. 

Such  an  outcry  might  have  been  ignored,  but  that 
their  other  department,  which  had  been  in  full  working 
order  for  several  generations,  had  excited  the  hostility 
of  many  of  the  most  respectable  families.  For  the  pas- 
sion for  posthumous  fame  had  eaten  into  their  fortunes. 
Men  of  wealth  had  taken  the  money  that  they  should 
have  left  to  their  relatives  and  posterity,  and  willed  it 
to  the  company  in  the  purchase  of  as  much  immortality 


74  Riallaro 

as  it  would  buy.  vSome  of  the  noblest  houses  were 
impoverished  by  this  itch  for  keeping  a  name  alive. 
And  still  more  would  have  been  reduced  to  poverty, 
but  that  they  had  a  large  pecuniary  interest  in  the 
business,  or  had  most  of  their  members  salaried  in  its 
emplo}'. 

It  had  come  to  be  a  great  scandal  and  had  roused  the 
attention  of  the  state  ;  added  to  the  outcry  of  the  dis- 
appointed Judases,  this  supplied  the  opportunity  for 
the  reformers.  And,  on  looking  into  the  matter,  they 
found  that  the  company  was  growing  too  powerful  for 
anj^  government  to  stand  up  against  it.  It  was  absorb- 
ing most  of  the  wealth  and  all  the  real  influence  over 
the  Aleofanians.  It  had  such  vast  and  disciplined 
forces  as  no  nation  could  bring  into  the  field.  The 
longing  for  reputation  or  fame  bad  made  one  half  the 
people  its  clients,  and  the  necessities  of  fortune  and 
the  love  of  slander  had  made  the  other  half  into  its 
servants.  The  king's  ministers  had  to  move'  with 
great  caution,  for  they  would  have  to  meet  all  the 
talking,  puffing,  amusing,  slandering  power  of  the  race 
organised  into  a  subtle  impalpable  phalanx  ;  the  dis- 
cipline was  more  imperturbable  than  that  of  the  strong- 
est army;  there  was  no  breaking  the  ranks  whilst  the 
influence  penetrated  everywhere  like  an  atmosphere. 
In  fact  for  generations  they  had  not  dared  to  move 
against  their  own  creation.  And  even  now  that  there 
was  a  strong  set  of  the  current  of  public  opinion  against 
it,  its  abolition  could  be  brought  about  only  by  a  secret 
and  sudden  blow.  They  met  in  dark  conclave  and 
took  their  measures  without  any  item  of  the  secret  ooz- 
ing out.  The  company  was  caught  unawares  and  sur- 
rendered. Its  business  was  appropriated  and  placed 
under  the  administration  of  a   new  department.     A 


The  Organisation  of  Repute         75 

royal  proclamation,  accepting  all  its  servants  as  em- 
ploN'ees  of  the  new  bureau,  and  all  its  obligations  as 
state  obligations,  prevented  panic;  and  the  transference 
was  made  without  the  slightest  public  commotion. 

The  revolutionary  measure  left  the  directors  of  the 
company  wealthy  but  powerless.  And  it  gave  to  the 
government  a  prestige  no  ministry  had  ever  had.  The 
Bureau  of  Fame  became  a  tower  of  strength  that  grew 
at  last  impregnable  ;  and  the  direction  of  it  was  the 
main  object  of  a  statesman's  ambition.  It  gave  him 
the  subtlest  of  influences  over  the  desires  of  men.  Be- 
fore him  even  the  greatest  and  proudest  cringed  ;  for  he 
could  make  or  annihilate  that  upon  which  their  exist- 
ence hung.  The)'  lived  in  the  breath  of  others  ;  to 
have  all  speak  ill  of  them  or,  still  worse,  speak  nothing 
of  them  was  more  bitter  than  death.  What  were  wealth, 
huge  estates,  great  fortune,  unlimited  power  over  lux- 
uries, compared  with  the  ballooning  of  their  name 
whilst  they  lived  and  the  surety  that  it  would  still  be 
raised  aloft  when  they  were  dead  ?  Their  present 
heaven  consisted  in  the  favouring  winds  of  fame  ;  the 
salvation  of  their  souls  lay  in  immortal  reputation. 
One  of  their  philosophers  indeed  had  with  much  ap- 
plause defined  the  soul  as  the  breath  not  of  a  man's 
own  body,  but  of  his  neighbours  and  his  public.  To 
be  no  more  talked  of  was  real  death.  The  disanim- 
ation  of  the  body  was  not  the  true  end  of  life  ;  many 
died  long  before  that  ;  whilst  some  few  outlived  the 
dissolution  of  the  dust. 


CHAPTER    X 


THE    CHURCH    AND   JOURNALISM 


THE  Bureau  of  Fame  had  come  to  be  the  real  shrine 
of  religion.  For  it  had  the  power  of  heaven  and 
hell  be5-ond  as  well  as  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  And 
one  of  the  most  significant  changes  in  the  government  of 
Aleofane  in  recent  times  had  been  the  amalgamation 
of  the  ministry  of  public  worship  with  the  department 
of  fame.  The  church  had  of  course  from  the  earliest 
times  been  a  state  institution  ;  and  in  spite  of  new- 
fangled philosophers  was  likely  to  continue  so.  For 
how  could  so  subtle  a  force  in  human  nature  as  religion 
be  allowed  to  straggle  lawlessl}-  throughout  a  nation  ? 
Above  all  things  it  needed  the  most  skilful  piloting.  A 
church  apart  from  the  state,  an  independent  power, 
meant  the  spirit  against  the  body,  a  divorce  unnatural, 
if  not  monstrous.  This  was  the  philosophy  of  the  posi- 
tion. And  so  convinced  of  it  were  the  rulers  that 
they  allowed  less  independence  of  action  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical than  in  any  other  department.  The  head  of  the 
church  was  a  minister  responsible  to  the  government, 
and  they  thought  it  illogical  and  feeble  to  let  such  an 
organisation  legislate  for  itself.  It  was  according  to 
nature,  it  was  the  true  primitive  law,  that  the  state  and 
the  church  should  be  completely  one.     The  idea  of 

76 


The  Church  and  Journalism        n 

their  separation  was  the  result  of  degeneracy  from 
the  gokleu  age.  And  what  anarchy  would  ensue 
from  an  attempt  to  realise  such  a  scheme  or  rather  no 
scheme! 

To  speak  of  the  separation  of  church  and  state  in 
Aleofane  was  to  speak  of  human  life  without  breath,  of 
the  noon  sky  without  the  sun.  The  religion  had  grown 
to  be  the  inner  spirit  of  government.  Never  had  there 
existed  so  religious  a  state.  It  could  accomplish 
nothing  except  through  its  ecclesiastical  organisation. 
It  could  affect  the  spirits  of  all  the  nation  in  any  direc- 
tion it  pleased.  It  is  true  the  people  jealously  guarded 
the  traditional  creed.  But  by  gradual  and  impalpable 
change  in  the  teachings  of  the  priests  or  in  the  cere- 
monies the  national  mind  could  be  bent  in  any  way  to 
suit  the  governors. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  effective  changes  in  the 
spiritual  scheme  of  the  state  had  been  the  gradual 
degradation  of  all  the  great  posts  in  the  church.  The 
princely  salaries  attached  to  them  were  from  tenure  to 
tenure  reduced  till  at  last  the  chief  ecclesiastical  officers 
had  to  rely  on  charity  for  subsistence.  The  great  spir- 
itual influence  that  obstinately  clung  to  them  drew 
occasionally  men  of  rank  and  ability.  But  all  the 
common  priesthoods  fell  so  low  in  estimation  that  at 
last  the  state  had  to  fill  them  with  the  milder  type  of 
higher-class  criminals.  No  one  would  enter  volun- 
tarily into  what  was  practically  mental  slavery  to  the 
government  of  the  time.  So,  if  any  marble  citizen  fell 
into  habitual  and  transparent  falsehood,  or  failed  before 
the  eyes  of  all  in  some  dishonest  scheme,  or  let  his  for- 
tune imperceptibly  leak  away  and  ceased  to  conceal  the 
financial  minus  on  which  he  luxuriously  lived,  he  was 
promptly  given  the  choice  of  the  church  or  journalism; 


78  Riallaro 

though  for  that  matter  the  two  had  been  for  centuries 
amalgamated  ;  they  were  but  two  branches  of  ecclesi- 
astical business. 

For  it  would  have  been  foolish  on  the  part  of  so  suc- 
cessful a  gov^ernment  to  stop  one  intellectual  leak  in 
the  nation  and  leave  a  wider  one  unguarded.  It  had 
been  always  a  matter  of  course  that  those  wdio  could 
teach  or  influence  the  people  with  any  talent  should  be 
the  servants  of  the  state.  It  came  about,  therefore, 
that,  as  a  literature  developed,  the  church  was  but 
journalism  through  speech  and  ceremony,  journalism 
was  but  the  church  in  writing.  They  were  but  two 
phases  of  the  same  function  of  the  state.  And  the 
governors  laughed  as  I  told  them  of  the  position  of 
affairs  in  Europe,  where  the  state  was  supposed  to  rule 
the  church,  but  had  allowed  the  press  complete  inde- 
pendence. AikI  they  told  me  as  a  close  analogy  the 
story  of  one  of  their  citizens  who  had  soon  drifted  into 
idiocy ;  a  bird  of  great  beauty  had  flown  into  his  house, 
and  he  resolved  to  catch  it  ;  and  to  make  sure  of  it  he 
planted  a  ring  of  servants  all  round  the  house  and  shut 
his  doors  and  locked  them,  and  opened  his  windows 
wide.  For  some  time  afterwards,  if  any  one  of  them 
met  me,  he  would  with  a  twinkle  of  the  eye  ask  me 
whether  the  governments  of  "  Yullup "  had  ever 
caught  their  bird. 

There  was,  I  inwardly  confessed,  a  logical  thorough- 
ness about  leashing  in  the  service  of  the  state  the  twin 
spiritual  powers  of  the  church  and  the  press.  But  I 
was  pained  in  my  European  vanity  to  find  the  most 
cherished  features  of  our  modern  civilisation  so  product- 
ive of  mirth.  They  showed  me  that  the  only  two 
logical  positions  were  complete  independence  of  both 
the  great  spiritual  powers  or  complete  control  of  both  ; 


The  Church  and  JournaHsm         79 

nothing  could  justify  the  release  of  one  and  the  bond- 
age of  the  other. 

As  retaliation  for  their  laughter  at  our  civilisation 
and  its  hard-won  fruits  I  smiled  at  their  employment 
of  criminals  as  priests  and  journalists,  and  asked  them 
how  they  could  expect  to  have  religion  well  taught  or 
truth  well  disseminated  by  such  characters.  They 
were  not  to  be  beaten  —  those  subtle  reasoners  ;  I  felt 
this  in  the  smile  of  superiority  with  which  they  met 
mine.  They  asked  me  how  I  could  expect  priests  who 
were  by  their  positions  and  incomes  independent  of  the 
state,  and  bound  only  by  their  own  caprices  or  by 
those  of  the  locality  or  circle  to  which  they  ministered, 
to  teach  the  creed  of  the  nation  aright  ?  To  secure 
their  salaries  or  to  win  reputation,  the}'  would  launch 
into  originalities,  nay,  into  absurdities  ;  they  would 
pander  to  the  predominant  passions  of  their  flocks, 
whilst  keeping  up  the  appearance  of  teaching  the  creed. 
The  very  contradictoriness  of  human  nature  would 
drive  them  in  different  directions  from  one  another. 
With  the  journalists  this  would  be  still  more  the  case, 
bound  as  the}-  would  be  by  no  definite  creed  or  set  of 
rules  or  kind  of  emotions.  How  could  they  be  expected 
to  spread  truth  when  there  was  no  guide  or  master  for 
them,  no  book  of  truth  to  appeal  to  ?  Nothing  could 
be  so  productive  of  mental  chaos  as  a  class  of  men  who 
without  training  or  guidance  or  conunon  consent  or  a 
common  set  of  beliefs  or  principles  should  be  allowed 
to  pour  their  vagaries  into  the  minds  of  the  people. 
Would  the  nation  ever  advance,  or  keep  from  degen- 
eracy, if  these  were  to  be  its  daily  teachers,  men  who 
would  pander  to  the  commonest  of  popular  passions 
and  tastes,  heedless  of  right  or  truth  or  even  policN'  ? 

And  when  the  state  had  both  religion  and  journalism 


8o  Riallaro 

in  its  hands,  how  was  it  to  secure  the  dissemination  of 
what  it  considered  absolute  truth  except  bs-  complete 
abeyance  of  the  wills  and  characters  of  the  dissemin- 
ators ?  Centuries  ago  they  had  had  a  church  whose 
priesthood  was  filled  by  men  of  the  purest  life  and 
highest  principle  and  then  no  one  knew  what  the  creed 
was  ;  it  was  torn  into  shreds  ;  and  over  its  remains  the 
preachers  and  theologians  trampled  like  wild  colts  ; 
there  were  a  hundred  schools  and  sects  within  the 
church,  and  each  claimed  for  itself  divine  authority 
and  divine  truth  ;  the  people  could  find  no  guidance  in 
faith  or  in  morality  ;  nor  dare  the  state  interfere  with 
the  extreme  preachings  or  practices  of  any  division,  or 
even  of  any  individual  priest,  for  his  followers,  seeing 
the  nobleness  of  his  life  and  believing  therefore  that  he 
had  reached  ultimate  truth,  would  gladly  die  at  the 
stake  for  him  ;  and  the  high-salaried  ecclesiastics 
having  once  got  into  their  posts  lived  a  free  life  with- 
out regard  for  God  or  man  or  government;  thej'  became 
fountains  of  immorality  and  discontent  ;  by  their  ex- 
ample on  the  one  hand  and  their  luxury  on  the  other, 
the  spiritual  head  of  the  church  was  powerless  ;  he 
dared  not  interfere  with  the  privileges  of  his  subordin- 
ates or  even  their  beliefs;  everything  was  indeed  chaos, 
and  that  a  chaos  of  religious  enthusiasm. 
'  It  was  the  birth  and  growth  of  journalism  that  taught 
the  state  the  true  cure  for  such  a  diseased  condition. 
Some  of  the  most  abandoned  but  able  men  in  the  nation 
had  sunk  so  low  that  no  one  would  trust  them ;  in  order 
to  get  something  to  live  on  the}'  were  driven  to  take 
advantage  of  an  invention  that  had  been  recently 
made  ;  the  use  of  free  types  had  cheapened  printing, 
and  with  this  and  some  other  means  of  cheaply  multi- 
plying written  productions,  they  determined  to  sell  at 


The  Church  and  JournaHsm        8i 

a  price  sheets  that  would  amuse  the  people.  They  were 
successful  ;  and  the  more  they  iuv^ented  lies  and  filled 
their  sheets  with  fiction,  the  more  lucrative  it  became. 
All  the  most  accomplished  liars  of  the  nation  crowded 
into  it,  and  it  was  generally  spoken  of  as  the  new  pro- 
fession of  lying  for  the  amusement  of  the  people.  The 
fortunes  that  had  begun  to  be  gained  in  it  and  the 
various  attacks  made  upon  men  in  authority  called 
the  attention  of  the  ministry  to  the  nascent  power. 
And  they  were  only  just  in  time  ;  a  few  more  years  and 
it  would  have  been  too  strong  for  any  state  to  cope 
with.  They  manipulated  it  with  caution;  they  bought 
up  the  poorest  and  most  unscrupulous  of  the  journalists 
into  what  was  practically  lifelong  servitude  to  the  state, 
and  turned  the  whole  force  of  their  talents  in  fabricat- 
ing untruth  against  the  few^  that  had  made  fortunes  in 
the  trade  ;  it  was  not  long  before  these  latter  were 
ruined  and  had  to  sell  their  services  to  the  govennnent. 
But  after  a  time  it  was  found  that  the  ablest  of  the 
state  journalists  grew  vain  of  their  powers  and  showed 
signs  of  striking  out  for  themselves.  Wages  w'as  not 
a  strong  enough  lien  over  the  talents  of  men  who  had 
grown  conscious  of  their  hold  on  the  people.  The 
trade  was  therefore  proclaimed  a  state  monopoly,  and 
all  the  conceited  journalists  were  weeded  out  ;  and  into 
their  places  were  put  the  most  capable  of  the  marble 
criminals  who  had  been  condemned  to  state  servitude 
for  life.  It  was  made  one  of  the  rewards  of  good  be- 
haviour amongst  convicts  ;  for  as  journalists  they  were 
allowed  to  live  in  some  degree  of  luxury  ;  they  had  full 
scope  for  their  craving  for  falsehood  and  dishonesty, 
and  made  of  these  a  fine  art.  The  only  condition  they 
had  to  fulfil  was  obedience  to  orders  ;  all  their  produc- 
tions were  based  on  ideas  supplied  to  them  by  the 

6 


82  Riallaro 

department  and  had  to  undergo  criticism  or  revision  by 
its  officers.  The  state  had  them  absolutely  in  its 
power  ;  and  yet  the  average  of  literary  talent  amongst 
them  was  far  higher  than  when  journalism  had  been 
free  and  independent  ;  in  fact  a  literature  of  some 
power,  a  pure  state  literature,  had  resulted.  It  was 
universally  acknowledged  that  genius  is  essentiallj^ 
immoral  on  one  or  more  rules  of  the  moral  code  and 
sometimes  on  all  ;  it  has  ever  a  vein  of  eccentricity  or 
even  madness  in  it  that  makes  it  leap  over  the  pales  of 
convention  or  principle  or  law  ;  and  hence  in  previous 
ages  it  had  always  been  a  pariah.  At  its  first  escapade 
it  was  now  hurried  into  the  fetters  of  the  state,  and  was 
soon  glad  to  accept  the  comparative  freedom  of  state 
journalism.  Thus  the  government  had  gathered  into 
its  service  the  greatest  imaginations  of  the  people,  and 
through  them  could  mould  the  nation  to  what  purpose 
it  would. 

The  success  of  this  conquest  of  a  new-born  pow^r  and 
domestication  of  the  wild  spirits  of  the  race  pointed  out 
the  true  secret  for  remedying  the  evils  of  religion  and 
the  church.  Eccentricity  was  rampant  in  them  ;  they 
were  ever  producing  discontent  and  riot  and  rebellion  ; 
they  were  the  homes  of  all  that  threatened  the  exist- 
ence of  the  state.  And  yet  the  state  dared  not  remove 
the  offending  priests,  lest  it  should  inflame  the  dis- 
loyalty of  the  people  who  followed  them.  The  most 
astute  of  their  statesmen  saw  the  lesson  of  the  conquest 
of  journalism  and  applied  it.  He  gradually  reduced 
the  salaries  of  the  clergy,  basing  the  policy  chiefly  on 
the  ground  that  those  who  served  God  should  be 
humble  and  free  from  the  temptations  of  luxury  ; 
another  and  minor  reason  was  that  during  a  time  of 
scarcity  and  depression  economy  was  needed  in   the 


The  Church  and  JournaHsm        83 

departments  of  the  state.  His  successors  carried  out  his 
craft  with  as  much  system  and  success,  and,  when  the 
lower  clergy  had  been  reduced  to  a  pittance,  crusaded 
through  the  journals  against  the  princes  of  the  church 
and  their  luxury.  By  this  time  the  marble  citizens 
had  ceased  to  send  their  children  into  the  ordinary 
priesthoods,  which  gave  no  more  the  chance  of  a 
career,  and  all  the  clergy  now  belonged  to  the  poorer 
classes.  The  higher  posts  were  in  the  gift  of  the  gov- 
ernment ;  and  it  stripped  them  one  by  one  of  their 
great  revenues  and  bestowed  them  thus  lowered  upon 
the  common  priests  who  showed  themselves  obsequious 
and  obedient.  And  at  last  the  very  headship  of  the 
church  w-as  surrendered  by  the  aristocracy,  when  it 
had  lost  its  enormous  salary  and  influence.  The  state 
at  once  created  a  department  of  public  worship  to 
absorb  its  functions.  But,  without  journalism  in  its 
hands,  it  would  never  have  been  able  to  accomplish  so 
complete  a  revolution  ;  against  it  and  its  power  over  the 
people  the  church  dignitaries  were  pithless  ;  whilst 
the  common  clergy  were  too  much  torn  by  sectarian 
opinions  to  offer  a  united  front.  The  later  steps  of  this 
clever  statecraft  were  easy  and  rapid. 

But  religion  was  not  yet  turned  to  its  final  purpose. 
Even  the  poor  priests  had  their  eccentricities,  and 
broke  away  from  state  leading-strings.  The  unit}-  of 
church  and  government  was  merely  nominal,  if  this 
could  occur.  To  make  anj'  function  of  the  state  real, 
perfect  discipline  is  needed.  A  national  army  would 
succumb  to  the  first  foe,  if  regiments  of  it,  or  individual 
generals,  were  to  follow  their  own  caprice.  And  a 
national  church,  if  it  is  to  be  a  true  engine  of  the  state, 
has  still  more  need  of  exceptionless  discipline,  inas- 
much as  it  has  to  master  the  spirits  of  men. 


84  Riallaro 

Generation  after  generation  of  Aleofanian  statesmen 
turned  their  best  energies  to  this  problem.  Experi- 
ment after  experiment  was  tried,  but  none  succeeded 
till  the  policy  of  government  journalism  was  adopted. 
Criminals  with  a  turn  for  piety  —  and  very  few  were 
without  it — were  offered  the  choice  of  incarceration 
for  life  or  careers  as  priests.  Already  the  people  had 
been  inoculated  by  the  journals  with  the  belief  that 
the  stream  of  divine  unction  had  poured  down  through 
the  ages  quite  irrespective  of  the  channels  along  which 
it  flowed  ;  it  would  have  been  a  hard  thing  indeed  if 
the  evil  characters  and  lives  of  so  many  priests  in  the 
past  had  stopped  their  transmission  of  the  favour  of 
heaven  to  their  flocks  ;  long  ago  would  true  religion 
have  failed  them  had  it  depended  on  the  officiating 
ministers  of  the  deity  ;  it  would  have  shown  limitation 
of  God's  omnipotence  if  He  had  been  supposed  unable 
to  send  His  inspiration  through  any  person  or  character. 
The  journalists  had  indeed  found  it  easy  to  press  home 
this  doctrine,  for  the  great  church  dignitaries,  being 
often  men  of  evil  life,  had  been  forced  to  inculcate  it  for 
many  ages,  and,  being  not  seldom  feeble  in  intellect, 
had  reduced  their  duties  down  to  the  mere  performance 
of  ceremonies  and  the  reading  of  pra5'ers  and  portions 
of  the  sacred  books.  It  was  only  amongst  the  poorest 
sectaries  that  the  clergy  had  to  use  their  brains  in  the 
way  of  reasoning  out  abstract  doctrine  into  practical 
precept,  or  in  rousing  their  flocks  to  religious  fervour. 
Their  light  it  was  eas}'  to  extinguish  or  ignore.  And 
all  the  marble  city  and  its  society  readily  accepted  the 
change  from  the  dull,  uninterested  performances  of  the 
old  dignitaries  to  the  smart  elocution  and  brilliant 
histrionic  attainments  of  the  criminals.  The  state 
chose  these  not  only  for  their  piety,  a   common  and 


The  Church  and  Journalism        85 

superabundant  commodity  amongst  them,  but  for  their 
grace  of  speech  and  action,  and  sent  them  for  several 
years  to  a  great  dramatic  college,  where  every  one  of 
the  arts  of  the  stage  was  taught  to  perfection. 

The  long-talked-of  reamalgamation  of  the  theatre 
and  the  church  was  at  last  silently  accomplished. 
What  was  the  use  of  paying  to  see  a  poor  performance 
in  the  theatre  or  concert-room,  when  they  could  enter 
any  church  for  nothing  and  see  a  far  more  brilliant 
ceremonial  enacted,  and  hear  far  more  talented  elo- 
cution ?  The  minister  of  public  worship  encouraged 
by  rewards  the  clever  rogues,  whom  he  had  selected  for 
the  church,  to  invent  new  and  more  interesting  modes 
of  conducting  the  services,  and  new  and  more  fascinat- 
ing ways  of  chaining  the  attention  of  a  crowd.  The 
dramatic  companies  and  public  entertainers  had  to  close 
their  doors  and  seek  employment  under  the  state,  and 
especially  in  the  Bureau  of  Fame.  The  old  revenues 
of  the  church  were  spent  on  magnificent  choirs  and  in- 
strumental l)ands,  on  the  training  of  the  musical  talent 
of  the  nation  for  its  services,  as  well  as  on  the  training 
of  the  criminals  for  its  priesthood.  As  a  rule  the  best 
histrionic  ability  straggled  off  into  prison,  for  it  de- 
lighted in  outraging  first  convention  and  then  law  ; 
it  had  a  great  ta.ste,  so  my  guide  informed  me,  for 
extravagance  and  show,  and  soon  developed  a  tendency 
to  lying  and  hypocrisy.  And  such  a  truthful  and 
sincere  people  had  elaborate  laws,  of  course,  for  the 
punishment  and  constraint  of  such  vices.  Thus  the 
state  got  all  the  actor-talent  of  the  marble  city  into  its 
power.  But  it  had  to  hire  the  musical  talents,  for  they 
were  too  vain  to  have  any  vice  but  quarrelling  ;  they 
had  to  be  caught  by  other  nets,  the  nets  of  gain  ;  it 
secured  from  childhood  all  who  had  fine  voices  or  great 


86  Riallaro 

and  original  talent  for  melodious  composition,  or  the 
management  of  musical  instruments,  and  it  trained 
them  elaborately  for  the  service  of  the  church  ;  the 
only  certain  employer  was  the  state,  and  thus  it  had  a 
monopoly  of  everything  musical  in  the  nation. 

Elaborate  and  attractive  though  the  church  services 
in  the  hands  of  the  state  had  grown,  they  still  repelled 
or  sent  to  sleep  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  wor- 
shippers ;  for  the  prelections  and  sermons  had  been  left 
unreformed  ;  they  were  as  old  and  tedious  and  un- 
interesting as  thcN'  had  been  centuries  before  in  the 
hands  of  the  incapable  scions  of  the  marble  citizens. 
A  reforming  statesman  had  recently  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  this  defect  ;  he  had  founded  a  great  college  of 
oratory,  and  selected  the  best  of  the  cultivated  and  able 
criminals  to  be  trained  there.  It  was  found  an  easier 
task  than  had  been  anticipated.  For  great  gifts  of 
speech  and  great  powers  of  moralising  were  found  to 
run  frequentl}'  with  immoral  and  criminal  tendencies. 
And  now  it  was  remembered  that,  under  the  freer 
regime  of  an  olden  time,  it  had  been  men  of  the  loosest 
life  who  had  gained  greatest  influence  over  the  people 
and  the  popular  assemblies  ;  popular  orator  and  scoun- 
drel had  in  the  older  language  been  synonymous  terms; 
whilst  even  orator  had  had  a  flavour  of  dishonesty  and 
untruthfulness,  if  not  libertinism,  about  it.  So  the 
prison  officials  saw  that  it  was  generally  the  most  un- 
trustworthy of  their  wards  who  were  most  persuasive 
in  speech,  and  had  to  be  isolated  lest  they  should  incite 
to  riots  and  rebellions. 

Thus  it  was  found  necessary  to  choose  all  the  future 
preachers  of  the  church  from  the  criminals  classified  as 
dangerous.  But  once  their  passion  for  oratory  was 
allowed  a  safety-valve,  once  they  began  their  training 


The  Church  and  JournaHsm        Sy 

in  the  college,  the}-  became  comparatively  harmless  ; 
provided  nothing  was  left  in  their  way  to  steal,  and  no 
one  sufficiently  off  his  guard  for  them  to  deceive  or 
corrupt.  When  I  arrived  in  Aleofane,  the  first  batch 
of  oratorical  criminals  was  being  draughted  into  the 
service  of  the  church.  And  I  found  great  commotion 
amongst  the  older  worshippers  against  the  innovation  ; 
they  complained  that  they  and  their  ancestors  had  fur- 
nished their  sections  in  the  churches  as  dormitories  ; 
and  now  they  claimed  damages  from  the  state  as  this 
expenditure  had  been  rendered  useless  ;  just  as  the 
music  had  induced  somnolence,  they  were  roused  by 
the  bellowing  appeals  of  these  loud-lunged  miscreants 
to  conscience  and  the  loftiest  principles  of  moralitj'  ; 
their  ancestors  had  not  thus  been  disturbed,  nor  were 
they  going  to  be  ;  they  removed  to  the  older- fashioned 
churches  where  the  droning  old  sermonisers  still 
buzzed  ;  there  they  would  have  peace  on  holy  daj'S  to 
rest  ;  they  would  be  gone  to  the  final  sleep  before  the 
ranting  crowd  had  followed  them.  The  younger  set 
of  worshippers  were  delighted  at  the  change;  for  they 
listened  now  to  liveh'  declamation  and  vivid  and  pic- 
turesque oratory.  Nothing  could  surpass  the  electric 
effect  of  some  of  those  preachers  on  their  audiences  ; 
you  could  hear  strong  men  weep,  and  women  that  were 
usually  marvels  of  silence  cry  out  in  wild  ecstasy  ; 
thousands  would  sway  as  one  soul  to  the  passion  of  the 
speaker,  or  again  a  ripple  of  laughter  would  freshen 
over  the  throng,  to  be  followed  by  a  shadow  of  pathos 
like  a  summer  cloud  over  corn-fields.  I  have  seen  men 
and  women  who  had  entered  the  building  with  smiling 
faces  fall  prostrate  on  the  marble  floors  in  an  agony  of 
repentance.  It  was  one  of  their  greatest  luxuries  in 
religion  to  have  those  strong  emotions.     They  came  to 


88  Riallaro 

the  church  purposely  to  be  mov-ed  out  of  their  shig- 
gish  routine  of  feeling  ;  and,  having  suffered  the  wild 
ecstasy,  they  had  all  the  enjoj-ment  of  convalescence 
from  the  spiritual  stroke  of  paralysis.  The  hysterical 
passions  that  were  often  lit  by  the  flame  of  church 
oratory  were  like  strong  drink  to  them  amid  the  level 
conventions  of  their  daily  life. 

Nor  did  the  state  permit  any  preacher  to  pall  upon 
his  audience.  As  soon  as  the  enthusiasm  began  tc 
slacken,  he  was  removed  to  another  localit}^  and 
church,  and  another  brawny  young  orator  fresh  from 
the  collegiate  hulks  was  launched  on  his  career  of  ap- 
peal to  the  emotions.  The  only  danger  was  that  in 
abandoning  himself  to  the  stream  of  his  eloquence  he 
might  depart  too  far  from  the  written  sermon  that  had 
been  revised  by  the  state  critics  and  utter  something 
that  might  clash  with  state  formulae.  But  there  were 
always  in  his  audience  guardians  who  kept  their  eye  on 
him  and  by  a  threatening  look  pulled  him  up.  And  if 
he  persisted,  his  promising  career  was  broken  off",  for  a 
time  at  least.  The  fear  of  this  was  generally  sufficient 
to  deter  these  oratorical  and  pious  criminals  from  in- 
dulging in  unlawful  flights.  For  it  was  a  terrible 
punishment  for  those  who  had  the  talent  of  persuasive 
talk  to  be  shut  up  and  have  their  speech  throttled  for 
ever  in  silent  and  repulsive  cells.  Indeed  it  was 
whispered  that  there  had  been  attempts  at  suicide  on 
the  part  of  some  budding  orators  who  had  so  far  trans- 
gressed as  to  be  condemned  to  lifelong  absence  from 
the  rostrum;  whilst  some  who  could  not  get  their 
oratorical  passions  slaked  or  even  recognised  have  been 
known  to  commit  a  serious  crime  and  then  stir  up  dis- 
turbance in  prison  in  order  to  get  scope  for  their  power 
of  influencing  the  emotions  of  others. 


The  Church  and  Journahsm        89 

And  it  was  marvellous  to  see  the  fervour  of  these 
convict-priests  ;  they  were  most  eloquent  and  convinc- 
ing^ on  the  evils  of  the  vice  to  which  they  were  most 
addicted  ;  they  knew  its  subtlety  and  its  fascinations  ; 
they  could  describe  with  the  most  picturesque  realism 
its  insidious  progress  and  its  resultant  misery  ;  they 
would  enact  the  scenes  of  its  various  stages  and  phases 
with  a  truth  and  histrionic  power  that  made  the  wor- 
shippers shudder.  And  then  the  appeals  they  made  to 
repentance  were  really  addressed  to  their  own  ideal 
selves  ;  and  so  fervid  and  sincere  were  thej^  so  full  of 
pathos  and  melting  prayer,  that  none  could  resist.  I 
have  heard  a  vast  crowd  of  Aleofanians  of  the  most 
righteous  lives  cry  out  in  response,  as  if  they  had  been 
the  most  abandoned  of  sinners. 

What  could  not  the  state  do  with  its  people,  when  it 
had  command  of  such  channels  into  their  very  hearts  ! 
Whatever  new  purpose  it  had  it  subtl}'  introduced  into 
the  sermons  and  church  services,  either  didactically  or 
dramatically  ;  songs  and  hymns  and  ceremonies  were 
matuifactured  for  it ;  gorgeous  spectacles  were  invented 
and  drew  crowds  to  the  churches  for  months.  But 
never  was  the  purpose  allowed  to  show  itself  obtrus- 
ively ;  it  penetrated  the  spirit  of  these  like  a  delicate 
perfume.  And  the  people  could  not  help  being  fas- 
cinated by  it,  so  subtly  did  it  ally  itself  with  all  the 
sweetest  anodynes  of  care  and  pain  and  all  the  most 
tempting  delights  of  the  senses.  Sweet  savours,  de- 
licious perfumes,  melodious  sounds,  the  most  artistic 
and  beautiful  sights  soon  made  the  new  state  policy 
the  ver\^  atmosphere  of  the  inner  shrine  of  memorj-. 
And  the  priests  and  church  orators  touched  the  springs 
of  emotion  with  hidden  but  concrete  presentments  of 
it ;  they  were  handsomely  rewarded  for  every  new  and 


90  Riallaro 

successful  method  the\^  invented  of  getting  it  inter- 
woven with  the  most  popular  feelings  and  the  most 
sacred  passions  and  memories. 

But  there  was  an  ecclesiastical  engine  of  state  that 
promised  to  be  more  effective  than  any  of  these.  For 
ages  there  had  been  in  the  church  an  institution  that 
had  somewhat  fallen  into  neglect  except  with  morbid 
women  of  the  upper  classes.  They  were  accustomed 
to  go  at  stated  times  into  a  box  like  a  horse-stall  and 
whisper  the  secrets  that  burdened  them  into  an  aperture 
like  an  ear  ;  from  this  the  sound  passed  by  a  tube  into 
the  secret  chamber  of  the  priests  of  the  church  ;  and 
there  came  back  to  the  ear  of  the  client  spiritual  advice 
that  would  console  her  in  her  difficulties  or  help  her 
out  of  them.  Neither  priest  nor  worshipper  was  sup- 
posed to  see  or  know  the  other  ;  the  act  and  communi- 
cation w'ere  purely  impersonal. 

This  custom  the  state  revived  and  expanded,  after  it 
had  begun  to  see  what  a  powerful  engine  the  Church 
could  be  made.  And  it  grafted  it  on  to  one  of  its  few 
failures.  When  it  had  discovered  how  useful  it  might 
make  criminals,  one  of  its  most  ingenious  and  ambitious 
ministers  determined  to  annex  it  to  the  medical  profes- 
sion. He  saw  its  subtle  and  secret  power  in  detail, 
and  thought  that,  if  he  could  weld  this  into  a  unity 
and  make  it  an  engine  of  state,  it  would  be  almost 
omnipotent  ;  for  the  physician  had  complete  com- 
mand of  his  patients,  and  could  make  them  believe 
what  he  would.  He  had  their  spirits  and  imaginations 
at  a  time  when,  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  life's  tide,  they 
were  most  the  prey  of  superstition.  Whether  hypo- 
chondriac or  really  sick,  they  were  at  his  mercy,  and 
what  he  prescribed  or  even  loosely  remarked  sank 
deeply  into  them.     Was  not  this  the  very  vantage  the 


The  Church  and  Journalism        91 

state  needed  for  riv^eting  its  chains  upon  the  spirits  of 
its  subjects  ?  The  invalid  periods  of  a  man's  life,  and 
still  more  those  of  a  woman's,  and  the  invalid  members 
of  a  household,  are  the  very  fulcra  of  the  levers  of 
existence.  Such  points  of  spiritual  omnipotence  should 
not  be  in  the  hands  of  private  bunglers.  The  only 
thing  that  kept  the  physicians  from  ruling  the  nation 
was  their  mutual  jealousy  and  perpetual  disunion. 

As  a  fact  it  was  the  state  that  supported  the  colleges 
of  medicine  and  guaranteed  the  ability  of  the  licentiates 
sent  out  by  them.  What  could  be  easier  than  to  go  a 
step  farther  and  make  the  physicians  servants  of  the 
state  ?  Some  of  the  most  astute  convicts  who  had 
tastes  in  that  direction  were  selected  and  trained  in  the 
full  course  of  the  medical  schools,  and  sent  out  to  prac- 
tise with  instructions  to  use  their  opportunities  for  the 
state.  But  there  could  be  no  check  upon  their  proceed- 
ings as  there  was  over  the  convict-priests.  They 
revelled  in  doing  evil,  and  a  most  obnoxious  practice 
grew  up  amongst  them.  It  was  soon  noticed  that  they 
became  most  luxurious  in  their  style  of  living,  and  at  last 
the  death  of  several  of  their  patients  along  with  a  new 
codicil  to  their  wills  bequeathing  to  the  convict-doctor 
large  legacies  aroused  suspicion  and  confirmed  the 
long-unheeded  outcry  that  the  professional  physicians 
had  raised  against  them.  It  was  found  on  close  inquiry 
that  they  had  milked  their  richest  patients  of  most  of 
their  fortune,  and  the  more  alert  and  obstinate  of  them 
they  had  drugged  into  subservience  to  their  will  and 
then  given  them  euthanasia.  No  custom  could  live 
in  the  midst  of  the  odium  that  this  revelation  stirred. 
And  the  great  statesman  had  to  swallow  his  ingenious 
invention  and  policy. 

But  he  was  not  content  to   remain  passive  under 


92  Riallaro 

this  recoil.  He  adapted  his  contriv^ance  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical organisation  of  the  state,  and  turned  his  convict- 
ph3'sicians  into  confessors.  They  had  been  chosen  to 
some  extent  for  their  soft,  low  voices,  their  refined  and 
feminine  manners,  and  their  insinuating  and  confiden- 
tial air.  A  little  more  training  in  the  arts  of  sophistry 
and  in  the  subtle  distinctions  and  precepts  of  theology 
would  fit  them  exactly  to  be  spiritual  advisers  in  the 
church.  To  warn  them  from  the  use  of  their  posts  for 
purposes  of  extortion,  their  brethren  who  had  gone 
astra)'  in  medicine  were  severeh'  punished.  And  to 
hold  check  on  their  conduct  and  advice,  the  confes- 
sional chambers  of  all  the  churches  were  connected  b}^ 
auditor}^  tubes  with  the  central  office  of  public  worship, 
and  every  confession  and  ever}-  consolation  could  be 
heard  by  the  minister  or  his  officials  if  he  liked. 

The  practice  of  consultation  in  the  auricular  stalls 
of  the  church  grew  with  amazing  rapidity.  The  in- 
sinuating young  voices,  the  subtle  consolation,  the 
efficient  advice  so  soothed  the  perturbed  spirits  of  the 
mentally  sick  that  on  the  slightest  commotion  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  their  life  they  rushed  again  to  the  ecclesias- 
tical ear.  Even  the  men  began,  at  first  in  a  shamefaced 
way,  to  await  a  vacancy  in  the  stalls,  afterwards  most 
boldl}'  and  as  a  habit  of  fashionable  life  they  indulged 
in  the  practice. 

It  reduced  the  revenues  of  the  physicians'  by  more 
than  half;  and  thej^  could  make  no  outcrj-  against  it, 
for  it  was  more  powerful  than  they.  At  last  one  great 
financial  minister  of  pui>lic  worship  organised  the  new 
departure  ;  he  had  all  the  auricular  stalls  of  all  the 
churches  of  the  nation  connected  directly  with  his  cen- 
tral office  ;  and  in  his  presence  all  the  spiritual  advisers 
sat  and   received   confessions  and  gave   consolations. 


The  Church  and  Journalism         93 

He  had  an  army  of  clerks  to  insert  in  the  secret  dooms- 
day-book opposite  the  name  of  each  citizen  anything 
in  his  or  her  confession  that  seemed  of  importance, 
whilst  every  morning  he  gave  out  the  general  policy 
and  tone  of  the  advices  to  be  communicated  ;  on  ex- 
ceptional cases  he  had  always  to  be  consulted  at  once. 

He  also  offered  a  percentage  on  the  legacies  left  by 
any  worshipper  to  the  church  ;  this  was  given  to  the 
criminal  on  whose  advice  it  was  left.  The  department 
of  public  worship  was  coming  to  be  the  wealthiest  in 
the  state  ;  for  he  fitted  up  the  auricular  boxes  of  the 
church  as  the  most  luxurious  boudoirs,  where  a  lady 
could  lounge  in  the  midst  of  the  sweetest  perfumes  and 
music  and  the  most  beautiful  paintings  and  statuary. 
He  even  allowed  at  a  large  rental  auricular  stalls  to  be 
let  by  the  month  or  3'ear  to  single  individuals  or 
families.  Hither  could  the  invalid  or  convalescent 
come  in  her  moods  of  despair  or  depression  and  pour 
her  sorrows  into  the  ear  of  the  soft-voiced  comforter 
who  shed,  by  his  casuistries  and  gentle  persuasiveness, 
balm  upon  her  spiritual  wounds.  At  last  he  permitted 
auricular  tubes  to  be  laid  to  the  private  chambers  of 
confirmed  invalids  and  of  the  dying,  at  a  large  premium. 
And  this  added  such  enormous  sums  to  the  revenue  in 
the  shape  of  legacies  that  he  reduced  the  rate.  Yet  he 
left  it  as  a  policy  of  the  office  that  it  should  never 
be  so  far  lowered  as  to  bring  the  privilege  within  the 
reach  of  those  who  had  but  moderate  incomes. 

Never  had  such  a  powerful  engine  come  into  the 
hands  of  the  state  ;  and  every  precaution  was  taken 
that  it  should  not  be  abused  and  that  no  secret  of  this 
great  confession  bureau  should  leak  out.  But,  when- 
ever any  citizen  grew  restive  or  obstreperous,  an  appeal 
was  made  to  the  pages  of  the  doomsday- book,  and 


94  Riallaro 

some  secret  found  there  was  applied  to  him  with  the 
effect  that  he  curled  up  into  unobtrusive  silence.  The 
convict-confessors  were,  of  course,  all  locked  up  at 
night  in  a  well-sentried  building,  and  by  day  every 
action  of  theirs  was  under  unseen  surveillance. 

They  still  continued  their  medical  studies  and  duties, 
and  were  able  to  prescribe  through  the  auditory  tubes 
to  whatever  patient  could  give  a  clear  account  of  his 
symptoms.  If  anyone  had  symptoms  that  did  not 
permit  of  a  clear  diagnosis  of  his  disease,  he  was  en- 
couraged to  come  into  the  consulting-room  of  the  office 
of  public  worship,  and  there  the  various  convict-physi- 
cians questioned  him  and  examined  him  unseen  ;  the 
diseased  organ  or  part  was  placed  under  powerful 
microscopes  into  which  they  looked  ;  then  the  whole 
staff  consulted  on  his  case  and  gave  him  advice  accord- 
ingly. But  these  were  rare  instances  ;  as  a  rule,  the 
patients  were  satisfied  with  the  impersonal  advice  and 
acted  upon  it.  Half  the  diseases  had  their  source  in 
the  mind  and  only  needed  spiritual  advice  ;  and  most 
were  both  mental  and  ph3'sical  ;  none  but  felt  great 
benefit  from  unburdening  their  spirits  and  receiving 
sympathy  and  consolation. 

Half  the  confessor-physicians  were  on  duty  by  night 
and  half  by  day  ;  and  the  former  section  consisted  of 
the  ablest  and  the  most  subtle  and  persuasive  ;  for  it 
was  found  that  night  patients  and  worshippers  needed 
more  spiritual  consolation  than  day  clients.  It  was 
during  the  sleepless  hours  of  the  dark  that  the  soul 
sank  into  the  abyss  of  morbid  weakness  and  often  into 
the  paralysis  of  terror.  It  was  then  that  it  seemed  to 
absorb  the  functions  of  the  body  and  infect  them  with 
its  own  diseases.  It  was  then  that  most  succumbed  to 
the  assaults  of  sickness,  the  life  ebbed  farthest  away 


The  Church  and  Journalism        95 

and  left  the  sensitive  nerves  naked  to  the  irritations  of 
thought  and  passion.  It  was  then  that  the  great  har- 
vest of  bequests  was  reaped  ;  seized  by  superstitious 
fears,  by  the  terrors  of  the  darkness  around  and  to 
come,  the  spirit  was  ready  to  abandon  the  mere  dross 
of  Hfe  for  a  little  support  on  the  threshold  of  the  grave, 
for  a  little  religion.  And  the  office  of  public  worship 
never  hesitated  to  promise  all  they  asked  for  beyond 
the  final  darkness,  provided  they  paid  well  for  the 
boon.  It  was  then  that  the  most  hideous  secrets  of  life 
were  whispered  into  the  ear  of  the  church,  then  that 
terror  drove  the  soul  into  the  refuge  of  complete  dis- 
burthenraent.  Even  when  death  was  years  off,  the 
feebleness  of  the  morbid  or  invalid  or  convalescent 
spirit  during  hours  when  sleep  would  not  approach  laid 
it  open  to  assault;  for  the  footfall  of  the  awful  destroyer 
seemed  to  be  heard  in  the  dread  silence.  It  was  then 
that  it  sought  the  consolations  of  the  auditory  tube  and 
opened  the  flood-gates  of  repentance  into  the  ear  of  the 
confessor-physician.  The  morning  brought  regret  for 
the  rash  candour,  but  the  secret  was  recorded  ;  the 
office  of  public  worship  had  undying  power  over  the 
fate  of  the  unburthened  soul. 

By  the  time  I  arrived  in  the  island,  the  phj'sicians 
felt  that  their  profession  was  doomed,  that  the  wily 
statesman  had  outwitted  them  ;  and  doubtless  before 
many  generations  most  of  them  would  plead  to  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  service  of  the  state.  When  that  oc- 
curred they  would  have  to  resign  themselves  body  and 
soul  to  it  ;  it  would  receive  none  but  those  who  were 
completely  in  its  power.  Of  course  there  was  still 
much  scope  for  them  in  families  that  would  not  trust 
mere  impersonal  advice  or  feared  to  resign  their  inde- 
pendence of  spirit  into  the  power  of  an  office  of  state. 


9^  Riallaro 

They  were  also  much  employed  in  seeing  the  treatment 
recommended  by  the  convict-physicians  carried  out  ; 
and  in  this  they  often  retaliated  upon  the  state  by  con- 
tradicting the  advice  and  sowing  doubt  of  its  soundness 
in  the  minds  of  the  patients.  Doubtless  the  next  move 
of  the  department  of  public  worship  would  be  to  blow 
through  pneumatic  tubes  into  the  auricular  stalls  of  the 
churches,  or  into  the  chambers  of  the  sick  the  drugs 
and  medical  requisites  that  were  recommended. 

By  means  of  these  three  uses  of  the  talents  of  con- 
victs the  state  church  had  become  a  reality  and  was  far 
more  powerful  than  the  press.  Journalism  poured  sug- 
gestion into  the  public  mind  ;  but  it  was  into  the 
healthy,  wide-awake,  often  recoiling  public  mind  ;  its 
reasonings,  eloquence,  or  imaginative  schemes  and  sug- 
gestions were  not  always  accepted  ;  thej^  had  often  to 
lie  ungerminated  in  the  soil  of  the  national  spirit  for 
years,  till  they  were  forgotten  and  some  new  occasion 
laid  them  bare  and  made  them  seem  to  spring  up 
spontaneously.  The  personality  of  the  writers  though 
not  unfelt  was  unseen,  and  so  far  had  the  potence  of 
that  which  is  mysterious  ;  but  they  could  not,  like  the 
ecclesiastical  convicts,  use  the  shadowy  distance  of  the 
world  to  come  in  the  way  of  threats  and  promises  ; 
they  could  not  stir  the  soil  of  the  present  to  immediate 
harvest  with  the  plough  of  the  future.  They  had  to 
depend  on  the  weapons  and  tools  of  the  average  man  ; 
the}'  had  to  reason  and  persuade,  explain,  or  appeal  to 
the  emotions,  as  neighbour  to  neighbour,  except  that 
they  had  the  impersonality  and  anonymit}-  of  confes- 
sors and  could  gag  their  opponents  in  any  attempt  at 
reply. 

Their  power  would  have  seemed  enormous,  had  it 
not  been  put  into  comparison  with  the  complete  state 


The  Church  and  JournaHsm         97 

organisation  of  the  church  and  been  overshadowed  by 
it.  They  were  used  as  the  dogs  of  war,  gathering  as 
they  did  into  the  hands  of  a  minister  the  loose  fangs  of 
irresponsible  gossip,  leashed  as  they  were  to  one  pur- 
pose and  one  spirit  or  polic}'.  They  knew  that  they 
had  but  one  master  to  please,  one  master  who  had 
their  lil)erty  and  still  more  their  luxury  in  his  power  ; 
and  him  they  served  with  all  their  faculties  and  espe- 
ciall}'  their  faculties  of  invention,  personal  venom,  and 
vituperation.  They  had  no  principle,  no  scruple  ex- 
cept towards  him  and  the  government  he  embodied. 
If  they  entertained  the  majority,  they  did  not  care 
who  suffered.  Their  first  object  was  to  strengthen 
the  roots  of  the  state,  and  especially  of  the  minister 
of  the  department  ;  their  next  was  to  make  the  largest 
number  possible  read  their  articles  and  paragraphs. 
If  any  one  of  their  victims  turned  upon  them  and  de- 
nied the  news  about  him  as  a  slander,  they  were  at 
once  made  by  the  head  of  the  department  to  apologise 
and  explain  that  b}'  some  mistake  the  paragraph  had 
slipped  out  of  the  pure  fiction  column  into  that  of 
news,  and  that  the  name  of  the  citizen  had  strayed 
out  of  the  column  of  eulogies  in  transferring  type. 
Where  this  was  impossible  as  an  explanation,  the 
minister  could  easily  appease  the  wrath  of  his  victim 
by  showing  him  how  an  especially  unscrupulous  convict 
had  been  introduced  new  into  the  office  and  had  acted 
on  his  own  responsibility  and  ignorance  of  the  rules 
of  revision. 

I  wondered  at  so  great  and  virtuous  a  people  endur- 
ing such  an  institution  in  their  midst.  They  marvelled 
at  my  wonder,  and  thought  of  it  as  based  on  the  very 
laws  of  nature.  How  could  any  marble  citizen  indulge 
in  such  work  and  retain  his  self-respect,  and  how  could 
7 


98 


Riallaro 


a  state  be  accountable  for  the  vagaries  of  irresponsible 
writers,  whose  dignity  and  self-respect  were  lost  ?  The 
onl}'  means  of  producing  a  united  and  vigorous  liter- 
ature was  to  make  the  writers  bond  to  the  state.  The 
only  means  of  keeping  it  pure  and  free  from  attacks  on 
the  nation  and  the  national  spirit  was  to  put  the  jour- 
nalists body  and  soul  into  the  hands  of  a  department, 
and  to  make  the  department  responsible  for  their  pro- 
ductions. This  was  a  provision  of  nature  as  soon  as 
such  an  institution  arose. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    BUREAU   OF   FAME 

I  WAS  evidently  as  far  astray  on  this  point  as  I  had 
been  on  the  emplo3'ment  of  convicts  in  the  church. 
And  when  the  full  significance  of  the  functions  of  state 
had  been  laid  before  me,  I  had  to  acknowledge  that 
there  was  much  in  their  prejudice  in  favour  of  the  en- 
slavement of  genius  and  talent — the  most  capricious 
of  human  things. 

As  soon  as  the  organisation  of  fame  became  a  func- 
tion of  government,  it  was  an  essential  that  national 
genius  and  talent,  the  arbiters  of  fame,  should  be  robbed 
of  their  caprice  and  yoked  to  the  will  of  a  single  respons- 
ible man.  What  would  be  the  use  of  spreading  one 
rumour  if  the  press  and  the  church,  which  could  creep 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  nation,  were  able  to  contra- 
dict it  or  render  it  fangless  ?  What  would  all  other 
means  avail  for  planting  a  reputation,  if  the  reasoning, 
imaginative,  and  rhetorical  ability  of  the  nation  were 
not  bound  to  water  and  foster  it  ? 

It  seemed  to  them  as  natural  as  breathing  that  the 
literary  and  oratorical  power  of  the  nation  should  be 
fenced  in  to  the  service  of  the  nation.  And  no  one 
ever  thought  of  complaining  that  it  was  entrapped  as 
early  in  life  as  possible  into  lifelong  slavery  to  the 

99 


loo  Riallaro 

state.  Where  would  the  reputations  of  all  of  them  be 
if  this  were  not  done  ?  The}-  would  be  as  safe  as  the 
lives  of  their  children  with  a  jungle  of  wild  beasts  let 
loose  amongst  them.  Who  could  control  these  irre- 
sponsible madmen  we  call  geniuses  if  it  were  not  the 
representative  of  the  force  of  the  nation — the  state  ? 

Trained  from  youth  b\'  the  strong  hand,  thej^  might 
be  of  great  service  in  moulding  the  national  future  ; 
but  if  left  from  the  first  to  follow  their  own  caprice, 
nothing  could  result  but  the  wildest  confusion  of  prin- 
ciples and  beliefs,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  reputation 
of  every  average  citizen  to  their  unslakable  thirst  for 
fame.  There  was  indeed  no  alternative  left  for  any 
self-respecting  community  but  the  enslavement  of  all 
the  capricious  power  of  imagination  born  in  its  midst. 
The}'  might  train  it  to  do  their  behests  and  serve  their 
destiny  ;  if  left  uncaged,  they  would  have  to  do  its 
behests  and  serve  its  destiny. 

The  amalgamation  of  the  Bureau  of  Fame  with  the 
department  of  public  worship  and  public  opinion  was  a 
policy  of  self-preservation.  The  church  made  ready 
the  soil,  the  press  sowed  the  seed,  and  the  bureau 
watered  and  weeded  and  reaped.  It  would  have  been 
a  national  folly  to  allow  any  disagreement  or  collision 
amongst  these  processes.  Better  almost  to  have  left 
the  national  genius  to  its  old  internecine  conflict. 

Now  the  Bureau  of  Fame  was  the  pivot  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  and  it  was  the  greatest  ambition  of  an  Aleo- 
fanian  to  rise  to  its  administration.  Its  minister  for 
the  time  being  was  arbiter  of  all  for  which  the  ablest 
men  lived  ;  he  could  make  or  mar  careers  ;  he  could 
raise  whom  he  would  to  immortality,  or  damn  him  to 
everlasting  execration,  or,  what  was  worse,  oblivion  ; 
he  was  far  more  powerful  than   any  pope  and   any 


The  Bureau  of  Fame  loi 

monarch     combined    could   be  ;    it    was    indeed    the 
chance  of  heaven  or  hell  he  could  deal  out. 

There  was,  of  course,  a  price-list  for  various  kinds 
and  periods  of  reputation  ;  and  a  citizen  with  a  large 
fortune  could  buy  what  was  for  human  life  inmiortality. 
But  the  chief  business  of  the  office  was  political,  to  en- 
force the  privileges  and  enhance  the  fame  of  the  marble 
citizens,  and  especially  of  those  in  power  —  a  great 
noble,  a  child  of  the  monarch,  or  one  whom  the  court 
and  the  minister  delighted  to  honour. 

If  the  new  protege  of  fame  was  a  commoner,  the  first 
proceeding  of  the  bureau  was  to  confer  on  him  one  of 
the  noble  titles  which  it  had  within  its  prerogative  ; 
for  it  was  the  guardian  and  creator  of  all  orders  and 
titles.  Next  it  set  one  or  more  of  its  most  imaginative 
criminals  to  invent  an  ancestry  for  him  and  a  life- 
history  ;  a  few  well-known  dates  and  facts  were  sup- 
plied as  the  skeleton  ;  but  round  the  skeleton  grew  a 
living  form  that  no  one  would  have  recognised  who 
knew  the  original,  so  romantic,  so  striking,  so  sublime 
did  it  become.  Into  every  historical  event  a  progenitor 
was  thrust  and  a  large  share  was  assigned  to  him. 
Marvellous  incidents  were  interwoven  with  historical 
facts  and  the  new  name  introduced  as  the  centre  of 
them.  Back  to  the  heroes  the  family  story  went  until 
it  was  lost  in  the  mists  of  the  origin  of  all  things. 
There  was  not  a  link  left  broken  or  weak,  not  an  open- 
ing left  for  destructive  criticism  ;  for  the  most  h3'per- 
critical  of  the  journalistic  criminals  were  let  loose  upon 
the  result  of  the  heraldic  fictionists'  work  ;  they  found 
every  weak  spot  and  tore  the  art  to  pieces.  With  this 
analysis  and  criticism  attached  to  it,  it  was  returned  to 
the  original  authors  for  repairs.  Again  and  again  it 
went   through    the  criticism  factory,  and   again   and 


I02  Riallaro 

again,  after  submitting  to  ever>-  test  that  could  be 
thought  of,  it  returned  to  the  hands  of  the  regenerators. 
Having  reached  the  final  form  that  withstood  the 
scepticism  of  the  subtlest  critics,  it  was  intermingled 
with  the  annals  of  the  country  and,  being  printed  in  a 
form  that  could  easily  be  read,  it  was  distributed 
amongst  a  section  of  the  people  who  were  unlearned 
yet  not  uninterested  in  the  national  history.  Ifthej^ 
failed  to  find  the  seams  of  the  patchwork  and  accepted 
the  newly  intruded  portions  as  genuine,  the  work  was 
finally  passed  as  ready  for  the  second  process  of  the 
bureau. 

A  staff  of  poets — epic,  lyric,  and  dramatic — were 
turned  on  to  the  new  episodes,  and,  being  left  to  their 
individual  tastes,  picked  out  one  this  and  another  that. 
They  each  worked  their  theme  into  brilliant  verse. 
The  result  in  one  case  would  be  a  long  romance  fit  for 
recitation  during  the  nights  of  the  dimmer  half  of  the 
year  ;  in  another  it  would  be  a  rattling  ballad  or  song 
that  would,  when  sung  through  the  streets  or  villages, 
catch  the  ear  of  the  people  ;  in  a  third  it  would  be  a 
dramatic  scene  or  complete  play  that  could  be  staged 
either  by  the  church  or  by  the  bands  of  strolling  actors 
who  perambulated  the  country  districts  in  the  pay  of 
the  state. 

Having  thus  got  a  brand-new  literature  manufac- 
tured for  its  protege's  life  and  ancestrj^  the  oflSde  set  its 
staff  of  musicians  to  work  on  the  legend  and  its  poetry, 
and  gorgeous  pieces  were  composed  for  the  ecclesiastical 
and  other  orchestras  and  choirs  upon  its  various 
themes  ;  and  short  catches  and  glees  and  songs  were 
composed  for  the  common  people  and  their  ballad- 
singers.  These  were  sent  out  through  the  length 
and   breadth   of  the   island   on   the   fingers  and  lips 


The  Bureau  of  Fame  103 

of  itinerant  players  and  singers  and  in  the  mechanical 
automata  that  were  manufactured  by  the  hundred  to 
repeat  any  tune  of  a  fixed  number.  The  whole  country 
was  soon  jigging  and  singing  to  the  popular  chorus 
that  enshrined  the  new  name  and  the  new  deed  or 
that  by  a  new  genealogy  linked  the  name  with  the  gods 
or  the  national  history.  And  all  the  marble  citizens 
and  the  people  of  the  city  were  trying  to  whistle  or 
hum  or  reproduce  on  their  private  tinkling  instru- 
ments the  more  melodious  passages  or  the  orchestral 
or  choral  celebration  of  the  new  fame. 

Meantime  the  journals  had  been  playing  battledore 
with  the  topic  and  the  various  sections  of  it;  they  intro- 
duced it  in  paragraphs,  in  articles,  in  verses,  in 
romances  ;  there  was  mysterious  gossip  about  the  new 
name  and  loud,  brazen-voiced  eulogy  ;  there  were 
subtle  inquiries  about  its  fame  and  as  subtle  answers. 
And  these  were  all  adapted  in  method  and  tone  to  the 
two  great  kinds  of  journals.  For  there  were  journals 
for  the  common  people  and  journals  for  the  marble  city. 
The  one  inculcated  due  regard  to  the  station  into  which 
a  man  was  born  and  reverence  for  all  notabilities.  The 
other  fitted  the  idiosyncrasies  of  high-  born  society, 
describing  its  splendours,  its  wit,  its  genius,  its  lofty 
origin,  its  generosity.  The  one  was  didactic,  the  other 
descriptive  and  eulogistic.  The  one  was  tedious  and 
thoroughgoing  ;  the  other  was  imaginative  and  spark- 
ling. And  by  each  the  topic  was  treated  in  its  own 
peculiar  way. 

The  church  did  its  dut}^  too.  It  never  failed  to  in- 
culcate the  fatalism  of  class  and  birth,  even  when  it 
was  floating  some  new  man  into  fame,  although  he  had 
but  recently  changed  his  class  and  had  his  ancestry 
manufactured,  ' '  E^ach  man  to  the  station  God  has  given 


I04  Riallaro 

him,"  was  the  watchword  of  its  prayers  and  its  prelec- 
tions. How  patheticall}^  the  preachers  dwelt  on  the 
fearful  results  of  attempts  to  reverse  the  commands  of 
nature  !  The^'  could  point  to  their  own  cases  as  the 
ruin  of  ill-weaved  ambition.  What  could  be  a  better 
proof  of  the  evil  of  contravening  the  divine  arrange- 
ment of  classes  than  their  own  career  ?  The}-  had  tried 
to  rise  above  their  fellows  and  the  place  God  had  given 
them,  and,  to  accomplish  this,  had  been  impelled  to 
break  the  laws  ;  the  consequences  their  hearers  might 
see  with  their  own  eyes.  And  often  the  tears  would 
roll  down  the  orator's  cheeks,  and  the  audience  would 
weep  with  him,  as  he  painted  the  horrors  of  transgress- 
ing the  divine  order  of  society,  and  appealed  to  them 
to  abstain  from  all  such  transgression  and  to  be  content 
with  the  station  God  had  assigned  them. 

Yet  the  next  part  of  the  service  would  be  a  recitation 
of  the  mythical  ancestry  of  some  new  man  and  of  their 
great  deeds,  or  a  dramatic  representation  of  his  heroic 
efforts  for  the  state,  or  a  hymn  in  his  honour  with  full 
choral  or  orchestral  effects.  Once  the  transgression  of 
the  divine  order  of  the  univers^  was  accomplished,  it 
was  accepted  as  a  portion  of  that  order.  However 
obscure  the  birth  of  the  favourite,  however  base  his 
nature,  it  was  at  once  transfigured  by  his  successful 
breach  of  the  social  laws  of  nature.  And,  when  the 
Bureau  of  Fame  adopted  him  as  protege,  he  was  within 
less  than  a  generation  washed  pure  as  snow,  the  noblest 
of  the  noble  in  personality,  in  ancestry,  in  posterity  ; 
all  his  life  and  character  and  origin  were  consecrated 
in  the  national  consciousness  ;  and  it  would  have  been 
treason,  nay  sacrilege,  to  doubt  the  divine  sanction  or 
the  truth  of  the  story  or  to  give  a  hint  of  the  poor  facts 
that  had  been   buried  in  oblivion.      The    name  was 


The  Bureau  of  Fame  105 

interwoven  with  the  holiest  feelings  of  reverence  ;  the 
splendid  fiction  in  song  and  drama,  in  prayer  and  pul- 
pit oration,  stirred  the  deepest  enthusiasm  of  worship, 
and  wound  itself  into  the  most  sacred  memories.  And 
the  whole  process  had  begun  and  gone  on  so  impalpably, 
so  subtly,  that  it  was  accomplished  before  anyone  could 
awaken  himself  to  criticism  ;  and  then  it  was  past 
remedy.  It  was  the  great  act  of  regeneration.  The 
character  and  manners  and  morality  of  the  man  and 
his  family  might  be  as  unclean  and  repulsive  as  before  ; 
his  name — the  true  living  principle  of  a  man  according 
to  this  people — was  raised  to  the  level  of  heroes  and 
gods,  was  launched  upon  the  career  of  immortalit}-. 

Alas  !  there  were  conditions  and  limits,  as  there  are 
to  everything  human.  The  negative  business  of  the 
bureau,  though  kept  in  subordination,  still  existed.  If 
an}^  man  offended  the  minister  or  his  patrons  or  satel- 
lites, then  was  his  name  first  dropped,  "  quick  as  a  fall- 
ing star,"  from  the  heaven  of  all  public  services  and 
performances  ;  the  literature  and  music  and  art  that 
enshrined  his  deeds  and  the  performances  of  his  ances- 
try vanished  no  one  knew  how.  For  a  time  vague  and 
derogatory  rumours  concerning  him  crept  through  the 
journals  ;  they  hinted  at  something  base,  if  not  crimi- 
nal, and  yet  the  hints  could  not  be  charged  with  any 
definite  meaning.  At  last  there  was  complete  and  un- 
broken silence.  The  man  was  buried  better  than  if  he 
were  dead  without  tombstone  or  memorial. 

I  marvelled  that  a  nation  that  so  worshipped  reputa- 
tion could  have  allowed  the  concentration  of  this  power 
in  the  hands  of  any  man.  But  I  was  assured  that  it 
was  used  with  great  wisdom  and  caution.  The  neg- 
ative function  was  rarely  set  to  work,  and  then  in  the 
most  underground  manner  ;  it  was  felt  but  never  seen. 


io6  Riallaro 

The  bureau  emplo^'ed  no  organised  band  of  slanderers 
as  the  compau}^  had  attempted  to  do.  In  fact  it  doubted 
the  prudence  or  effectiveness  of  such  a  course.  Con- 
tinual and  open-mouthed  detraction  of  any  man  would 
probably  produce  the  opposite  effect  ;  it  would  make 
the  neutral  suspect  some  plot  against  him  and  stir  their 
innate  sympathy  for  the  oppressed.  Nay,  many  would 
court  the  notoriety  of  organised  ciiticism  and  derog- 
ation as  a  cheap  method  of  keeping  their  names  in  the 
mouths  of  the  nation.  What  the  bureau  did  in  the 
negative  way  was  truly  negative.  Its  policy  was 
the  inculcation  of  complete  silence  ;  and  oblivion  was 
the  result— a  result  so  telling  amongst  the  Aleofanians 
that  the  marble  citizens  almost  grovelled  before  the 
court  and  the  minister  of  fame,  and  even  before  their 
parasites. 

With  the  common  people  the  bureau  and  its  power 
of  heaven  and  hell  had  no  influence  ;  to  condemn  to 
everlasting  oblivion  w^is  no  threat  for  them  ;  to  raise 
them  to  immortality  was  no  reward.  It  was  the  main 
engine  of  discipline  in  the  marble  city.  And  never 
was  there  so  effective  a  discipline  amongst  an  aristo- 
cracy. A  frown  from  the  minister  was  enough  to  cow 
the  boldest  spirit.  Never  was  a  nobility  so  meek,  so 
free  from  turbulence  and  rebellious  self-seeking  ;  the}^ 
were  willing  to  take  whatever  colour  the  court  delighted 
in  ;  they  changed  their  opinions,  their  manners,  their 
principles,  their  morality,  their  life  to  the  subtlest 
changes  in  the  court  and  the  bureau  ;  human  chame- 
leons, they  would  change  their  hue  even  from  hour 
to  hour,  as  the  court  changed.  No  group  of  beings 
in  heaven  or  earth  surpassed  the  discipline  of  these 
Aleofanians, 


CHAPTER  XII 


FREEDOM    AND    REVOLUTION 


YET  they  gloried  in  their  freedom  and  their  love  of 
freedom.  No  people  could  be  freer  than  they. 
Daily  in  their  temples  were  there  songs  and  hymns 
chanted  in  honour  of  liberty.  It  was  a  truism  of  the 
journals  that  liberty  and  libert}^  alone  could  be  the  true 
spiritual  atmosphere  of  a  nation.  They  loved  to  wor- 
ship superiors  and  reverence  especially  the  vicegerent 
of  God  upon  earth— the  head  of  the  Bureau  of  Fame. 
They  bowed  to  him  and  did  him  every  obeisance  be- 
cause he  was  the  head  of  the  church  and  worthy  of  all 
manner  of  worshipful  obedience.  But  he  had  no  con- 
trol over  their  actions  except  the  moral  and  religious 
control  which  they  willingly  acknowledged. 

As  an  instance  of  their  complete  freedom  of  action 
they  pointed  to  the  way  in  which  the  government 
allowed  them  to  do  as  they  liked  with  the  peasants  and 
artisans  and  the  lower  classes  generall}'  who  were  in 
their  service.  In  the  discipline  of  these  they  were  un- 
trammelled. The}'  acknowledged  that  they  were  re- 
sponsible to  the  state  for  the  good  conduct  of  their 
servants  ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  state  passed  over 
to  them  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  these  so  that 
their  authority  should  be  no  mere  nominal  thing.  Ah, 
freedom  was  indeed  the  noblest  feature  of  life  ;  they 

107 


io8  Riallaro 

might  as  well  pass  into  the  grave  at  once  as  give  it  up 
or  allow  it  to  be  interfered  with. 

I  was  afraid  to  suggest  to  them  the  information  I  had 
received  from  a  foreigner  in  the  lower  city  about  a 
large  part  of  the  country  people.  All  the  former  in- 
habitants of  the  island  and  most  of  the  artisans  were 
in  semi-slavery.  They  saw  the  hesitation  in  my  face 
and  guessed  its  purport.  And  one  of  my  eulogists  of 
liberty  launched  into  a  prelection  on  the  necessity  of  a 
stage  of  servitude  in  the  history  of  all  ascensions  to 
civilisation.  A  people  that  had  not  long  issued  from 
the  animal  stage  could  never  become  anything  better 
than  half-brutes  but  through  bondage  to  a  more  ad- 
vanced race.  It  was  indeed  a  noble  mission  of  theirs 
thus  to  spend  ages  on  the  task  of  assisting  a  tribe 
of  half-savages  to  subdue  their  foul  passions.  The 
peasantry  would  be  nothing  but  wild  beasts  without 
such  restraint.  The  process  had  been  going  on  for 
centuries,  and  it  showed  the  great  patience  and  love  of 
the  Aleofanians  that  they  persisted  in  such  a  repulsive 
and  fruitless  task.  The  artisans  were  those  of  them 
who  had  improved  under  the  discipline,  and  so  they 
had  been  partially  freed.  But  even  they  were  still 
somewhat  savage  in  their  natures  ;  even  they  needed 
to  be  treated  with  great  long-suffering.  The  marble 
Aleofanians  w^ere  as  patient  with  these  degraded  beings 
as  a  mother  with  her  child,  never  sparing  the  rod  when 
it  was  needed,  although  it  lacerated  their  finer  feelings 
to  use  such  a  means  of  discipline.  He  compared  their 
conduct  in  this  matter  with  their  treatment  of  monetary 
relations.  Thej-  were  equally  generous  and  self-deny- 
ing and  protective  of  the  good  of  all  the  other  people 
of  the  nation  in  dealing  with  money  ;  they  held  it  the 
root  of  all  evil,  and  to  prevent  its  working  havoc  wide- 


Freedom  and  Revolution         109 

spread  they  concentrated  it  in  the  hands  of  a  few, — the 
marble  citizens, — who  could  not  so  easily  be  harmed 
by  it. 

I  called  his  attention  to  the  numerous  interferences 
with  liberty  of  action  in  the  various  laws  that  fenced 
them  in  from  the  indulgence  of  certain  passions.  Ah, 
that  was  one  of  the  noblest  instances  of  their  worship 
of  freedom  ;  so  devoted  were  the}^  to  it  that  they  pro- 
hibited everything  that  would  lead  to  a  breach  of  it  ; 
no  man  could  be  allowed  to  circumscribe  his  own 
liberty;  and  all  vice  circumscribed  liberty  ;  hence  all 
vice  had  to  be  checked.  It  was  only  in  the  interest  of 
liberty  that  liberty  was  ever  interfered  with. 

He  slid  into  another  eulogy  of  freedom  and  instanced 
the  devotion  of  the  Aleofanians  to  it  in  their  conversa- 
tion. No  one  was  checked  in  his  criticism  of  a  neigh- 
bour or  fellow-citizen  ;  their  city  was  indeed  a  mutual 
fellowship  society  in  which  the  freest  censure  of  each 
other  was  allowed  for  mutual  benefit.  The  keen  con- 
test of  wits  moulded  their  characters. and  intellects. 
No  one  dared  be  absent  from  any  social  or  conver- 
sational fete,  lest  he  should  suffer  in  reputation  from 
becoming  the  topic  of  the  meeting.  Never  would  they 
descend  to  vulgar  depreciation  ;  they  were  masters  of 
refined  insinuation  and  veiled  malignity.  The)^  could 
whisper  away  a  reputation  with  the  grace  of  a  duellist  ; 
and  at  the  climax  of  a  mortal  combat  of  wits  their 
serenity  remained  unruffled.  Oh,  the  grace  and  beauty 
of  their  social  life  !  They  were  never  done  admiring  it. 
But  without  this  freedom  of  criticism  it  would  be 
nothing.  Ah,  life  in  Aleofane  was  indeed  a  noble 
thing,  so  happy  and  free  were  all  classes  of  the  people, 
from  monarch  to  peasant,  from  the  bureaucrat  of  fame 
to  the  poorest  artisan  ! 


I  lo  Riallaro 

"  Even  the  criminals  were  happy  "  was  the  climax 
of  his  eloquence.  I  asked  him  for  an  explanation. 
He  proceeded  to  show  me  how  it  was  failure  that  con- 
stituted crime.  To  deceive  successfull}'  was  the  highest 
art  of  life  ;  for  the  essence  of  art  was  to  conceal  itself. 
And  to  be  discovered  was  to  fail  in  this.  Whoever 
suffered  this  indignity  was  convicted  of  the  special  vice 
he  had  been  concealing  and  sent  to  the  hulks,  that  is, 
was  turned  into  a  journalist  or  priest.  In  these  profes- 
sions they  were  perfectly  happy,  for  they  were  allowed 
in  them  to  revel  in  their  own  special  vices.  The  jour- 
nalists manufactured  their  news  whenever  they  found 
events  fail  them,  and  the  priests  manufactured  their 
myths  and  creed  whenever  the  sacred  books  failed  them. 
So  their  capacity  of  fiction  was  exercised  daily  and 
liourl3\  And  provided  it  was  exercised  in  accordance 
with  the  purpose  of  the  bureau,  no  one  interfered  with 
their  enjoyment.  The  newspapers  and  the  church  were 
the  home  of  fiction  ;  and  when  truth  was  told  there,  it 
passed  unrecognised.  In  order  to  keep  up  the  interest 
of  readers  the  journalists  manufactured  sensational  news 
one  da}'  and  contradicted  it  the  next  ;  and  in  order 
to  draw  crowds  one  priest  would  preach  a  most  hetero- 
dox interpretation  of  the  sacred  books  in  his  sermon 
and  another  would  reply  to  him  in  his  and  contradict 
him.  This  neutralised  the  evil  that  might  arise  from 
journalism  and  its  personalities  and  fiom  sermons  and 
their  heterodoxies.  It  would  never  have  done  to  put 
ordinary  citizens  or  successful  deceivers  and  slanderers 
into  such  posts  ;  they  would  be  too  astute  in  deceiving 
the  people  ;  their  fictions  would  not  be  so  palpable  and 
gross  or  so  mutually  contradictory  that  the  simplest 
reader  or  hearer  would  discover  them.  So  much  had 
the    Aleofauian  palate   become   accustomed    to    such 


Freedom  and  Revolution         1 1 1 

journalism  and  pulpit  oratory  that  if  the  writers  ever 
described  facts  or  indulged  in  truths,  they  had  to  give 
them  the  flavour  of  fiction  ;  and  if  ever  the  priests  in- 
dulged in  orthodox  doctrines  they  had  to  give  them  the 
tinge  of  the  heterodox.  Ah,  surely  the  whole  people 
were  happy,  for  all  were  so  free  as  to  be  able  to  indulge 
their  special  appetites  and  likings  ! 

I  was  scarcely  convinced  by  this  subtle  and  eloquent 
eulogy  of  Aleofanian  life  and  liberty,  and  I  deter- 
mined to  visit  the  common  people  and  see  for  myself. 
I  had  already  examined  the  journals  intended  for 
them  and  seen  how  different  they  were  from  the  fash- 
ionable literature  of  the  marble  city.  They  were  gen- 
erall)^  presented  to  strangers  and  must  have  greatly 
impressed  them,  for  they  were  full  of  noble  sentiments 
and  moralisations  subtly  interwoven  with  eulogies  of 
the  Aleofanian  leaders  of  state  and  fashion  for  their 
great  virtues  and  goodness.  It  was  most  edifying  to 
read  these  sermonised  news-sheets,  saturated  as  thej^ 
were  with  the  highest  ethics  and  deepest  piety,  and 
especially  the  doctrine  that  it  was  the  duty  of  ever}^ 
man  to  adhere  to  the  station  in  which  God  had  placed 
him.  But  I  was  struck  after  I  came  into  the  marble 
city  with  the  tone  adopted  towards  them  bs'  the  citizens 
of  the  higher  class;  they  spoke  of  them  with  a  patronis- 
ing smile  and  disinterested  approval,  as  if  they  were 
talking  of  children's  Sunday-school  literature  or  fairy 
tales.  And  about  all  the  fiction  in  these  popular  jour- 
nals there  was  the  atmcsphere  of  a  child's  fairyland  ; 
everything  was  happy  and  beautiful  and  as  it  should 
be.  After  reading  a  series  of  them  I  could  easily  have 
concluded  that  Aleofane  was  another  paradise  for  the 
unambitious  and  lowly,  and  that  death  must  be  looked 
upon   by    the    common   people   as   an   overwhelming 


112  Riallaro 

catastrophe  in  that  it  put  a  stop  to  this  full  current  of 
joy  and  happiness. 

.  My  curiosity  was  greatly  piqued.  I  wished  to  see 
this  other  Eden  upon  earth.  So  with  letters  and  pass- 
ports and  a  guide,  one  of  the  journalists,  I  set  out. 
And  for  the  first  few  days  everything  was  idyllic.  But 
drunkenness,  the  special  vice  of  my  cicerone,  got  hold 
of  him,  and  he  collapsed  by  the  way.  Thereafter  I 
found  the  whole  scene  change.  It  was  now  nothing 
but  squalor  and  gloom  and  the  lash  of  the  whip. 

A  stranger  from  a  neighbouring  island,  whom  I  had 
met  in  my  first  hostelry,  explained  to  me  the  histrionic 
character  of  the  first  few  days'  experience  and  the 
reality  of  the  last.  He  took  me  in  hand,  and  under  his 
guidance  I  visited  one  of  their  provincial  cities.  Here 
I  saw  men  and  women  of  the  same  race  as  the  marble 
citizens  crawling  in  filth  and  starvation,  prostrate  in  a 
magnificent  temple  before  the  sleight-of-hand  and  the 
mesmerism  of  the  priests.  They  were  bound  in  the 
chains  of  superstition  and  ignorance,  and  they  were 
encouraged  to  do  little  else  than  procreate  and  multi- 
ply ;  for  to  pauperise  by  religion  was  the  first  rule  of 
the  Aleofanian  government,  and  to  enslave  the  soul  b}^ 
pauperism  and  ignorance  was  its  corollary. 

Yet  in  a  cave  outside  of  the  town  we  witnessed  from 
our  hiding-place  awful  and  mysterious  rites  of  a  re- 
volutionary propaganda  proceeding.  We  saw  thousands 
of  the  ignorant  peasants  and  artisans  getting  initiated. 
And  when  the  ceremony  was  finished  we  almost  burst 
into  laughter  over  the  pathos  as  the  agitators  gathered 
round  a  fire  and  gorged.  My  guide  had  evidently 
something  to  do  with  this  rising  revolution  ;  and  he 
was  so  enraged  to  find  that  an  agent  from  the  com- 
munistic island  of  Tirralaria  had  crept  in  amongst  the 


Freedom  and  Revolution         113 

revolutionists.  The  heavens  confound  his  impudence 
and  cant  !  What  he  and  his  beggarly  crew  from  the 
isle  of  thieves  wanted  was  to  divide  the  plunder  of 
another  island.  They  had  communised  Tirralaria  into 
a  cipher.  Of  the  wealth  that  they  had  counted  b}- 
thousands,  when  they  landed  there,  naught  remained 
but  the  nothings.  The  growth  of  the  dummy  citizen 
or  cipher  in  the  denominator  had  made  Tirralarian 
property  a  vanishing  point.  The  game  of  this  Garrulesi 
w'as  not  to  establish  socialism  in  Aleofane,  but  to 
socialise  its  property  into  Tirralaria. 

After  his  burst  of  anger  I  tried  to  elicit  more  about 
this  socialistic  community.  Tirralaria  was  a  large 
island,  I  got  to  know,  into  which  had  been  tumbled 
some  centuries  ago  a  few  thousand  socialists  with  con- 
siderable wealth  to  their  share.  They  had  increased 
to  tens  of  thousands,  and  their  wealth  had  gone  down 
to  little  more  than  a  shirt  to  each  back.  After  the 
besom  of  a  tornado  or  a  famine  or  a  plague  had  swept 
the  island  the  population  soon  reached  high-water  mark 
again  ;  every  square  yard  of  the  soil  was  littered  with 
a  stronger  and  lazier  humanit3\  The  island  stank  of 
humanity  miles  to  leeward.  There  was  scarcely  room 
enough  for  graves,  let  alone  beds.  The  lubberly  and 
oleaginous  let  themselves  out  as  mattresses  ;  and  so  the 
space  was  economised,  and  another  increase  was  pos- 
sible. The  unclean  rogues,  they  never  washed,  unless 
they  chanced  to  get  hustled  off  the  edge  of  the  island 
into  the  sea.  The  description  contrasted  so  strongly 
with  the  rose-coloured  picture  that  I  had  heard  drawn 
by  the  socialist  agent  in  the  cave  that  I  determined  to 
see  for  myself. 

As  we  wandered  through  the  forests  of  the  island  ni}'- 
guide  told  me  of  two  saviours  that  had  landed  on  the 


114  Riallaro 

coasts  of  Aleofane  and  become  the  protectors  of  the 
poor.  One  refused  to  resort  to  the  tricks  of  the  char- 
latan, and,  deserted  b}^  his  followers,  perished  at  the 
hands  of  the  aristocracy,  who  then  adopted  his  tenets 
and  worked  them  into  an  elaborate  hypocrisy.  The 
other,  learning  by  his  fate  and  bettering  the  jugglery 
of  the  marble  citizens,  put  heart  and  drill  into  the  poor 
who  flocked  to  his  standards,  and  led  them  to  victor}-. 
He  seized  the  throne,  but,  flattered  b}'  the  old  aristo- 
crac}'  into  belief  in  his  own  divinity  and  into  desertion 
of  the  cause  of  the  poor,  he  vanished  in  pomp,  luxury, 
and  corruption. 

By  dint  of  persistent  inquiry  I  got  him  to  explain 
his  hints  about  the  island  from  which  the  ancestors  of 
all  of  them  had  come.  It  was  called  Faddalesa,  or  the 
isle  of  devils,  because  of  the  appalling  phenomena  they 
encountered  w^henever  they  attempted  to  return  to  it. 
It  had,  he  acknowledged,  been  called  Limanora,  or  the 
island  of  progress;  but  for  thousands  of  years' that 
name  had  lapsed.  And  on  the  shores  of  now  one  island 
and  again  another  strangers  had  landed.  But  as  they 
were  wealth}^,  and  taciturn,  no  questions  were  asked, 
and  their  descendants  had  vanished  into  the  ranks  of 
the  aristocracy.  It  was  many  centuries  since  any 
had  come,  though  it  was  generally  supposed  in  the 
archipelago  that  I  had  come  from  the  central  island 
with  my  fireship.  I  saw  the  mistake  that  they  had 
made  would  serve  my  new  resolve  to  make  for  this 
mother  isle  ;  and  I  left  it  unchallenged  in  their 
minds. 

In  the  great  northern  harbour  of  Aleofane  I  came 
across  the  same  filth  and  a  similar  rich  temple  ;  but  I 
also  found  clearer  evidence  of  underground  revolution 
approaching  consummation.     And  for  the  sake  of  my 


Freedom  and  Revolution         115 

fireship  and  its  powers  of  helping  on  tjie  movement  I 
was  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  one  of  their  societies. 
The  socialistic  agent,  Garrulesi,  insinuated  himself 
into  ni}'  acquaintanceship  ;  and  for  the  sake  of  being 
able  to  return  with  him  to  his  home  I  endured  his  elo- 
quence on  the  perfection  of  the  altruistic  life.  Com- 
petition was  the  bane  of  the  human  race  ;  and  its  onl}- 
products  were  poverty  and  disease  and  unhappiness. 
It  was  responsible  for  property,  and  the  only  crime 
was  property.  Was  it  not  monstrous  that  one  man 
should  taboo  what  another  man  needed  !  Obliterate 
property,  and  5'ou  wipe  out  crime  too.  How  gentle 
and  amenable  and  humane  was  the  true  commonweal, 
where  neither  property  nor  class  existed  !  No  law 
was  needed,  no  law  could  persist.  Every  natural  in- 
stinct and  passion  of  the  human  breast  was  allowed  the 
fullest  scope.  There  was  indeed  no  further  stage  to 
reach  ;  need  of  progress,  of  effort  was  passed.  Man 
under  such  a  rule  had  become  all  that  he  might  be,  and 
he  felt  that  whatever  is  is  right.  Evil  and  darkness 
had  fled  before  the  light  of  primitive  happiness,  and 
existence  had  become  the  throne  of  God. 

As  he  dilated  on  the  nobleness  of  Tirralarian  civilis- 
ation I  saw  his  eye  flicker  and  his  colour  change.  A 
stranger  had  passed.  He  told  me  that  we  were  being 
watched.  He  wished  me  to  take  refuge  in  Tirralaria 
with  my  fireship  if  anything  occurred.  But  I  had 
promised  it  to  my  guide  and  fellow-traveller.  He 
showed  one  flash  of  anger.  But  it  vanished  at  once. 
He  led  me  to  the  shore  and  pointed  out  his  falla  or 
ship.  In  it  he  would  hang  round  the  coasts  for  me, 
and  he  indicated  an  unfrequented  point,  whither  I 
could  flee  and  find  safety  on  board  his  ship.  He 
offered   to   take  off  to  my  crew  any   message   that   I 


ii6 


Riallaro 


desired  to  send ;  I  might  instruct  it  to  come  to  Tirralaria 
for  me  after  it  had  been  to  the  isle  of  dogs.  I  wrote  in 
English,  and  sent  my  orders  to  ray  comrades,  knowing 
that  the  language  would  be  safe  from  his  prying. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

IMPRISONMENT   AND    ESCAPE 

HE  went  on  board  and  I  returned  to  my  guide, 
whom  I  found  greatly  disturbed.  An  official  spy 
had  come  down  from  the  marble  city  ;  and  this  meant 
that  a  whole  army  of  them  in  covered  armour  were  in 
the  neighbourhood  and  on  the  alert.  He  had  scarcely 
ears"  for  an  account  of  my  interview  with  Garrulesi  till 
I  reached  the  story  of  his  blanching  at  the  sight  of  a 
stranger.  His  alarm  grew,  and  he  was  concocting  a 
scheme  for  getting  to  my  fireship,  though  he  knew  it 
would  be  almost  impossible  to  pass  through  the  cordon 
of  state  guards  that  was,  he  was  certain,  drawn  round 
us.  Just  as  dusk  shuttled  into  dark  he  had  matured 
his  scheme,  and  we  were  about  to  put  it  into  effect 
when  the  door  of  our  room  in  the  hostelry  opened  and 
a  missive  was  delivered  to  each  of  us.  We  were  invited 
by  the  monarch  to  return  to  the  marble  city  and  so- 
journ with  him  in  his  palace.  Nothing  could  be 
clearer  than  that  the  bureaus  had  received  information 
of  our  movements  and  suspected  that  we  were  engaged 
in  stirring  the  artisans  and  peasants  to  revolution. 
And  this  was  a  pleasant  invitation  to  euthanasia.  Our 
doom  was  fixed  if  we  could  find  no  other  way  out  of  the 
noose. 


117 


ii8  Riallaro 

Early  in  the  morning  a  car  of  triumphal  proportions 
drew  up  at  our  door  and  we  were  bowed  by  the  town 
oflScials  with  great  ceremony  into  it.  It  went  off  at 
funereal  pace  by  a  coast  road  to  the  marble  city,  ac- 
companied bj'  an  escort  of  royal  guards.  It  was  plain 
from  the  faces  of  the  wayfarers  of  the  ruling  class  that 
there  was  something  portentous  in  our  procession,  for 
they  looked  back  at  us  with  glances  full  of  pit}-.  My 
guide,  who  came  to  be  more  self-controlling  in  his 
manner  and  more  confidential  and  intimate  in  his  tone, 
told  me  how  often  he  had  feared  such  a  result  ;  but 
they  had  followed  their  own  diabolical  style  of  letting 
him  have  complete  freedom  till  he  had  become  reckless, 
and  now  the}'  had  pounced  upon  him.  He  asked  me, 
if  I  escaped,  to  make  for  Broolyi,  his  native  country, 
and  inform  the  authorities  of  his  fate  ;  they  would  give 
me  full  protection  and  treat  me  with  the  greatest 
hospitality,  I  might  be  sure.  He  told  me  his  own 
name — Blastemo — and  said  that  the  mention  of  it  would 
turn  all  his  relatives  into  mj'  friends.  But  lest  the 
devils  should,  with  their  usual  pharisaic  inhumanity, 
make  their  refined  methods  of  torture  take  the  place  of 
euthanasia,  he  gave  me  a  small  nutful  of  a  most  potent 
drug,  a  pinch  of  which,  small  enough  to  be  hidden 
under  the  nails,  would  launch  me  in  a  few  seconds  into 
the  tide  of  unconsciousness  that  leads  to  death.  In  the 
palace  we  would  be  watched  by  a  hundred  eyes  that  we 
could  never  see.  Unseen,  unguessed-at  espionage  was 
one  of  the  secrets  of  the  mysterious  power  that  the 
bureaus  had  over  all.  The}-  seemed  to  know  almost 
what  was  transacted  in  the  depths  of  the  soul  in  the 
darkness  of  midnight.  The  only  safeguard  in  the  Isle 
of  Liars  (thus  he  translated  the  name)  was  the  univer- 
sal suspicion  that  tortured  the  marble  citizens.     None 


Imprisonment  and  Escape         119 

of  them  felt  sure  of  even  his  nearest  relative  or  closest 
friend.  And  if  any  chance  of  escape  came  to  us,  it 
would  be  through  some  official  of  the  palace  who  was 
getting  uneasy  about  his  own  fate. 

We  were  welcomed  at  our  destination  with  great  and 
effusive  ceremonies  as  if  we  were  about  to  be  enthroned. 
And  for  days  we  seemed  to  be  the  centre  of  all  its  hos- 
pitalities ;  we  were  feted  and  banqueted  and  amused 
in  the  most  elaborate  style.  And  through  the  whole 
series  of  festivity  and  pomp  we  were  without  any 
apparent  caution  kept  strictly  apart,  so  that  we  were 
not  able  to  pass  even  a  word. 

The  monarch  showed  himself  greatly  interested  in 
me  and  asked  me  innumerable  questions  about  my 
people  and  country,  being  especially  amused  at  my  de- 
scription of  the  use  of  steam  in  doing  work,  and  of  the 
use  of  firearms.  His  little  six-year-old  boy  was  even 
more  entranced  by  my  pictures  of  the  steam-engine 
and  of  our  warfare.  He  was  the  one  weakness  of  his 
father.  He  clung  to  my  side,  especially  when  in  dis- 
grace, and  that  was  very  often.  It  was  he  who  told  me 
that  my  fireship  was  off  the  mouth  of  the  estuary 
where  I  had  landed.  I  stimulated  his  curiosity  to  the 
utmost,  seeing  a  possible  way  of  escape.  He  kept 
begging  the  king  to  let  him  go  to  it.  But  clearly  the 
bureaus  were  against  such  a  venture. 

At  last  the  child  fell  ill.  The  physicians  declared 
the  illness  to  be  one  of  the  heart,  and  after  a  time 
warned  his  father  of  its  dangerous  character  if  the  boy 
were  in  any  way  thwarted.  He  whined  every  day  his 
old  request  that  he  might  be  taken  on  board  my  fire- 
ship.  The  king  pleaded  with  the  heads  of  the  bureaus 
to  let  him  go  ;  and  they  at  last  grew  alarmed  too,  for 
he  was  the  only  heir  to  the  throne,  and  the  father's  life 


I20  Riallaro 

was  by  no  means  certified  by  the  physicians  as  likely 
to  be  long.  They  saw  the  risk  of  getting  thrown  out 
of  power.  And  they  consented  to  the  expedition,  but 
under  the  most  stringent  conditions.  I  was  to  remain 
on  shore  whilst  Blastemo  and  the  little  prince  should 
go  on  board  with  his  father  and  a  royal  escort. 

We  set  out,  and  after  much  floundering  in  the  mud 
and  grappling  with  the  current  they  swept  over  the  bar 
under  the  guidance  of  a  fisherman  who  knew  every 
sand-bank  and  could  prevent  such  a  mishap  as  befell  me 
when  I  landed.  I  had  sent  a  note  with  them,  and  I 
could  see  that  the  three  were  received  on  board  with 
every  sign  of  friendliness.  But  the  boats  containing 
the  escort  drew  out  to  a  distance  from  the  steamer. 

Everything  seemed  to  go  well  for  a  time;  the  sea  was 
calm,  with  a  slight  breath  and  ripple  off"  the  shore. 
Suddenly  I  saw  a  whiff"  of  smoke  shoot  out  from  the 
bow  of  my  yacht,  and  with  a  loud  report  reverberating 
from  the  chff"s  behind,  a  ball  landed  in  the  midst  of  a 
troop  of  guards  that  was  stationed  to  cut  off  my  retreat 
towards  the  north,  the  only  possible  way  of  escape  ;  on 
the  other  side  was  the  river  with  its  acres  of  mud,  and 
behind  was  the  road  to  the  city,  well  guarded  at  all 
points.  The  result  was  as  sudden  as  the  shot.  I  had 
just  time  to  collect  my  senses  and  look  round  ;  and 
away  on  the  highway  I  could  see  the  tails  of  the  guard 
in  the  wind.  Another  shot  and  another  ploughed  the 
earth  or  flapped  into  the  mud,  and  cleared  the  lowlands 
of  every  Aleofanian. 

I  soon  realised  the  situation  and  quietly  walked  off" 
to  the  north  over  a  long  spit.  I  made  no  attempt  to 
run  as  if  I  were  escaping.  But  as  I  moved  higher  and 
higher  on  the  rising  ground  I  could  see  the  shot  strike 
the  flat  I  had  left.     When  I  reached  the  highest  part 


Imprisonment  and  Escape         121 

of  the  promontor}'  I  found  the  reason  for  the  demon- 
stration. A  falla  lay  in  the  offing,  sheltered  from 
sight  of  the  retreating  troops  by  the  high  bluff  in 
which  the  spit  terminated.  Garrulesi's  instructions 
flashed  into  ni}-  mind  ;  and  I  remembered  that  this  was 
the  point  he  had  indicated  for  my  safet}^  if  ever  I  needed 
to  escape. 

I  got  over  the  ridge,  and  as  I  looked  back  I  could 
see  the  sand  occasionally  pirouetting  in  the  air  and  I 
could  hear  a  reverberation  sound  in  the  rear.  I  then 
ran  as  quickly  as  legs  would  carry  me  towards  the 
shore.  In  a  sheltered  nook  of  quiet  water  lay  a 
native  boat,  with  the  men  sitting  paddles  in  hand. 
They  gave  me  the  signal  agreed  upon,  and  I  readily 
jumped  on  board.  The  canoe  shot  out  from  the  rocks. 
And  it  was  not  too  soon.  For  a  troop,  recov^ering  from 
their  panic,  were  making  down  the  sheltered  side  of  the 
spit,  unnoticed  by  the  yacht.  And  we  were  not  out  of 
reach  when  the  first  arrows  sliced  the  water.  The  men 
redoubled  their  efforts,  and  only  half  a  dozen  missiles 
struck  the  boat  before  we  were  safe  on  board  Garrulesi's 
falla. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  VOYAGE   TO  TIRRALARIA 

I  ASKED  him  to  sail  round  the  bluff  and  communicate 
with  my  yacht.  But  he  would  not  hear  of  it.  He 
said  that  this  would  endanger  the  safety  of  all,  for 
the  Aleofanian  king  would  see  at  once  how  elaborate 
had  been  the  conspiracy  and  how  treacherous  we  had 
been,  and  he  would  take  every  means  to  frustrate  our 
departure,  or,  if  we  got  safely  off,  to  avenge  the  insult. 
I  had  to  accept  his  reasons,  for  I  was  in  his  power. 
But  I  was  sure  that  there  were  others  ;  he  was  afraid 
that  if  I  got  on  board  my  own  ship,  Blastemo  would 
persuade  me  to  go  off  with  him  to  Broolyi  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  if  he  secured  me  for  his  island,  my  fire- 
ship  would  soon  be  in  Tirralaria  too. 

I  found  out  afterwards  from  my  sailors  that  the  king 
had  fallen  into  great  consternation  at  the  firing  of  the 
guns,  especially  when  the  boats  with  his  guards  made 
off  towards  the  shore.  One  of  the  shot  had  opportunely 
ploughed  up  the  sea  not  far  from  their  station  and  had 
evidently  filled  them  with  panic.  My  men  knew  that 
Garrulesi  was  waiting  for  me  on  the  other  side  of  the 
point,  and  they  kept  firing  towards  the  beach  till  they 
thought  that  I  should  be  on  board.  Then,  in  order  to 
quiet  the  fears  of  the  king,  they  put  him  and  his  boy 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         123 

into  the  yawl,  and  pulled  him  on  shore.  In  his  excite- 
ment he  had  forgotten  all  about  Blastemo,  and,  before 
he  had  regained  the  upper  reaches  of  the  road  and 
joined  his  troops,  the  yacht  had  lifted  anchor,  picked 
up  her  boat,  and  steamed  out  to  sea.  They  saw  my 
signal  on  board  the  falla,  and  knew  that  I  was  safe. 
So  they  followed  my  instructions  and  made  for  Broolyi, 
whilst  the  wind  bore  us  in  the  opposite  direction. 

But  the  shadows  thickened,  and  before  night  fell 
we  had  run  into  the  shelter  of  some  high  land  and 
anchored.  The  men  hung  a  dirty  guttering  lamp  in 
the  main  room  of  the  high  poop,  and  by  its  light  I 
could  see  how  slovenl)^  and  foul  was  the  whole  cabin. 
It  smelt  of  fish-oil  and  of  unnumbered  meals  past. 
The  floor  was  littered  with  garbage,  so  that  I  had  to 
clear  a  path  through  it  to  prevent  slipping.  I  could 
find  no  convenient  ledge  to  sit  on  that  was  not  em- 
bossed with  grease  and  oil.  I  was  glad  to  reach  the 
night  air  again,  for  it  at  least  helped  to  deodorise 
the  deck.  I  got  them  to  hang  me  a  hammock  in  the 
shrouds,  resolved  to  keep  out  of  the  cabin  as  long  as  I 
could. 

I  was  awakened  at  early  dawn  by  the  movements  of 
the  seamen,  and  through  the  grey  light  I  saw  that  we 
were  lying  off  the  bleak,  rocky  shore  of  an  islet.  We 
hoisted  sail  and  were  off  before  a  whistling  wind  that 
sang  violence  to  come.  They  had  considerable  skill  in 
handling  the  falla,  and  we  left  a  long  scar  behind  us 
across  the  crests  of  the  emulous  waves.  Swift  though 
the  current  and  surge  ran  with  us,  we  outstripped 
them,  rising  like  a  sea-bird  to  the  full  impulse  of  the 
wind.  I  could  tell  at  a  glance  that  the  ancestors  of 
these  seamen  had  been  accustomed  to  rough  waters 
through  countless  ages. 


124  Riallaro 

My  host  came  on  deck  after  we  were  fully  under  way 
and  at  once  joined  me.  He  launched  again  into 
eulogies  of  the  socialistic  communit}-.  I  was  at  the 
mercy  of  his  eloquence,  and  resigned  myself  to  my 
fate.  Yet  before  the  voyage  closed  and  we  ran  into 
port  I  was  rewarded  for  my  talent  of  listening.  He  got 
wearj'  of  tempting  my  admiration  by  his  praises,  and 
soon  slipped  into  what  looked  like  fact.  He  gave 
me  a  picturesque  description  of  the  island  when  its 
rude  outline  began  to  sierra  the  horizon.  There  were 
miles  and  miles  of  lawns  and  orchards  that  terraced  the 
lowlands  from  the  lapping  water  on  the  beach  to  the 
roots  of  the  mountains  that  I  saw  dim  white  against 
the  sky  rim.  Gleaming  rivers  streaked  the  meadows 
with  their  silver,  or  hid  beneath  the  blossoming  or  fruit- 
ing trees.  Here  and  there  they  swelled  into  sylvan 
lakes  whose  surface  was  spidered  into  moving  gossamer 
by  flocks  of  tame  sea-birds  and  by  canvas  bent  on  pleas- 
ure and  ease.  Towering  above  the  tallest  trees  stood 
vast  temples  that  seemed  in  their  shining  marbles  to  out- 
strip the  snowy  giants  that  were  every  hour  revealing 
to  me  more  and  more  of  their  stupendous  proportions. 

I  piloted  him  by  judicious  admiration  and  questions 
into  a  description  of  their  faith.  It  seemed  to  be  a 
polytheism  that  was  practically  a  pantheism.  Every 
spirit  that  existed  in  the  universe  apart  from  body  was 
equal  to  every  other  spirit.  As  soon  as  a  man  died  his 
soul  became  a  god,  as  worthy  of  worship  as  any  other 
god  that  had  existed  from  the  beginning.  Through 
the  whole  of  space,  and  even  permeating  matter  in- 
visibly, impalpably,  gods  lived  and  moved  and  had 
their  being.  They  needed  no  sustenance,  no  addition 
of  energy,  no  extension  of  space  to  live  in.  The  uni- 
verse was  full  of  them,  immortal  generators  of  other 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         125 

spirits,  other  gods.  It  was  indeed  an  Olympus  that 
was  so  united,  so  free  from  all  jealousy  and  enmity 
that  it  formed  but  one  god,  just  as  the  living  cells 
of  the  human  body,  though  each  having  its  own  in- 
dividualitj',  made  but  one  human  life.  And  there  was 
still  infinity  to  fill.  Worlds  died  every  hour,  having 
fulfilled  their  purpose  of  producing  all  the  divine  life 
whereof  they  were  capable.  Every  hour  worlds  were 
born  evolving  energy  and  at  last  life,  which  rose  by 
stages  up  to  the  human  that  dying  might  be  divine. 
The  stellar  system  is  but  a  great  god-factory.  Not  an 
atom  that  lives  is  wasted.  Everything  that  comes  into 
existence  rises  up  and  into  the  nobly  human  ;  then  the 
physical  sequence  ceases  and  the  divine  begins.  Death 
deifies  all  men  ;  evil  falls  away  from  them  with  their 
bodies  ;  and,  winged  through  the  vault,  the  souls  flit, 
rid  of  passion  and  whatsoever  clogs  pure  thought. 
They  have  no  desire  to  materialise  again  ;  they  have 
no  desires  at  all.  The}'  can  interpenetrate  and  unite 
and  disunite  without  the  sense  of  disunion.  They  are 
one  with  existence  that  is  not  bound  to  what  is  matter 
or  has  senses.  The}'  make  the  final  all  ;  and  yet  this 
all  increases  every  moment  with  transcendent  growth. 
Its  one  imperfection  is  that  it  cannot  fill  the  whole  of 
space  ;  its  one  aspiration  is  to  colonise  infinity.  Life 
is  too  poor  to  satisfy  it.  It  must  grow  for  ever  and  for 
ever  through  new  systems  and  oceans  of  worlds  that 
evolve  myriads  of  new  gods  ready  to  people  the  still 
unmastered  regions  beyond  its  ken.  Its  energy  is  not 
diminished  by  the  stupendous  labour  at  the  unceasing 
birth  of  worlds.  Every  new  effort  means  increased 
possibility  of  energy.  It  is  of  the  nature  of  pure  spirit 
to  develop  its  potence  of  energy  by  energising.  Once 
freed  of  cumbering  matter,  its  life  grows  fuller  and  freer 


126  Riallaro 

the  more  it  operates  on  the  atoms  of  the  ether  to  raise 
them  nearer  and  nearer  to  its  own  nature  and  being. 
Nor  can  it  work  except  through  this  laborious  ascent  ; 
this  is  the  only  hierarchy  of  life,  the  only  altar-stairs 
in  the  universe,  whereon  being  of  lower  grade  clambers 
up  to  godhead.  Once  the  altar  is  reached  there  is 
nothing  but  equality.  There  is  only  imperfection  and 
perfection  in  existence.  Of  imperfection  there  are  as 
many  gradations  as  there  are  kinds  of  being  ;  in  per- 
fection or  godhead  there  is  no  differentiation  ;  there 
degree,  class,  distinction  cease.  For  all  gods  are  one 
in  the  all.  In  the  stage  just  precedent  to  godhead, 
in  humanity,  gradation  has  begun  to  vanish.  It  is 
only  the  adulterate  nature  that  still  keeps  distinction. 
The  higher  the  range  of  the  men  the  less  the  differ- 
ence between  them  ;  and  at  last  death  obliterates  it  ; 
they  are  perfect  in  freedom  from  the  long-obstructive 
matter,  perfect  in  godhead,  united  to  the  all. 

This  outline  of  the  socialistic  religion  came  On  me 
with  the  surprise  of  one  who  should  see  wine  flowing 
in  the  bed  of  a  torrent  instead  of  water.  I  began  to 
have  a  certain  respect  for  this  eternal  talker  whose 
verbal  bubbles  had  suddenly  turned  to  pearls.  He 
stopped  just  when  I  had  wished  him  to  go  on  ;  and,  to 
tap  the  same  vein,  I  asked  him  how  his  countrymen 
worshipped  their  god. 

He  came  dangerously  near  to  winding  up-  his  elo- 
quence clockwork,  for  he  pointed  to  the  sky  and  then 
to  the  snowy  bulwark  that  loomed  along  the  horizon  ; 
and  he  straightened  himself  out  and  cleared  his  throat. 
I  feared  the  complacent  glitter  of  his  eye,  and  I  rushed 
to  the  water- vat  and  drank.  The  interruption  seemed 
to  switch  off  his  energy  from  his  almost  automatic  word 
machine.     He  had   grown   meditative  and  rested  his 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         127 

head  on  his  hands  as  he  looked  over  the  rail  into  the 
sea. 

I  approached  him  when  I  saw  his  new  attitude,  and 
he  began  in  a  soft,  reluctant  voice  :  "  We  are  all  priests 
as  we  are  all  kings  in  our  community.  To  have  a 
hierarchy  or  even  an  intermediary  who  should  be  sup- 
posed to  be  in  more  direct  sympathy  and  communica- 
tion with  the  gods  than  the  rest  is  the  worst  of  insults 
to  the  divine  energy  of  the  soul.  To  make  a  special 
profession  of  that  which  is  the  aim  of  embodied  life  is 
but  to  commercialise  the  divine  and  embrute  the  human. 
The  priests  place  their  feet  on  the  necks  of  the  ignor- 
ant, and  it  is  their  interest  to  reduce  all  to  ignorance. 
Instead  of  the  equalit}',  which  is  the  true  principle  of 
life,  we  should  have  a  double  tyranny  ;  we  should 
grovel  before  our  gods,  whose  superstitions  would  weigh 
us  to  the  ground  ;  and  we  should  have  their  profes- 
sional agents  introducing  the  caprice  and  imperfection 
of  the  human  into  their  yoke.  I  know  not  which  is  the 
worse  :  the  purely  spiritual  slaver}'  of  timid,  startled 
worship,  or  the  mingled  slavery  of  priestcraft  that 
makes  the  divine  mysterious  and  terrible  in  order  that 
the  worshippers  may  bow  before  it  body  and  soul. 

"  It  was  a  question  with  our  ancestors  when  they 
were  apportioning  the  wealth  they  had  brought  with 
them  to  general  purposes,  whether  they  should  build 
temples  to  their  new  and  universal  god  or  take  the 
dome  of  immensity  as  his  shrine.  The}'  had  brought 
with  them  a  love  of  art  devoted  to  divine  service,  and 
a  traditionary  love  of  temples  as  the  symbols  of  the 
divine  dwelling-place.  And  yet  temples  would  imply 
attendants  who  would  soon  raise  themselves  into  a 
spiritual  tyranny.  Whilst  there  around  them  was  the 
free   ether   wherein   dwelt  members  of  the  godhead  ; 


128  Riallaro 

there  above  them  was  the  marvellous  roof  of  night  fres- 
coed with  worlds.  Surely  it  was  better  that  the  chrj'S- 
alids  of  gods  should  live  in  the  same  temple  as  the 
gods.  There  was  no  sanctuary  like  that  which  the 
divine  had  chosen  and  made  for  itself.  To  set  apart 
an}'  portion  of  it  as  a  holy  of  holies  would  sully  the 
nobleness  of  its  workmanship.  Fane  there  was  none 
but  the  universe  ;  and  any  poor  chantry  erected  bj'' 
man,  however  stupendous  it  seemed  to  him  with  his 
span  of  life  to  build  it  in,  would  be  a  mockery  of  the 
Infinite.  How  pigmean  it  would  seem  beneath  the 
vault  of  night,  wherein  distance  was  fenced  by  the  pene- 
trative impotence  of  human  eyes,  how  atomic  when 
gauged  by  thought,  the  true  instrument  of  worship  ! 

"  At  first  schism  threatened  over  this  burning  ques- 
tion. But  at  last  yon  steaming  censer  of  the  mountains 
gave  the  solution.  The  first  night  fell,  and  thej'  saw 
a  strange  glow  above  the  ranges  as  if  it  were  a  fire 
amongst  the  clouds.  Superficial  thought  would  fain 
explain  it  as  the  after-sheen  of  sunset.  But  the  hours 
advanced  and  still  the  radiance  flushed  and  faded, 
flushed  and  faded,  and  often  with  fuliginous  and  lurid 
glare.  At  times  a  pillar  as  of  smoke  and  flame  seemed 
to  unite  earth  and  heaven.  Every  eye  was  fixed  on 
the  turbid  glimmer  as  it  enhaloed  the  sombre  beauty  of 
the  night.  The  still  lingering  superstitions  that  lurked 
in  the  graveyards  of  many  minds  took  it  as  a  sign  from 
the  world  beyond  death.  In  the  dusky  aisles  of  night, 
as  they  discussed  the  theme  in  low  and  reverent  voices, 
there  spread  the  magnetic  power  of  resurgent  supersti- 
tion in  a  crowd  touched  with  the  myster}^  of  the  uni- 
verse; and  before  the  dawn  suffused  the  sky  or  flooded 
the  ancestral  recesses  of  the  mind,  it  was  resolved  to 
take  this  fiery  peak  as  the  altar  of  their  worship. 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         129 

"But  the  elements  had  decided  otherwise;  the  searing, 
blinding  power  of  its  everlasting  snows,  the  torrid  ebul- 
lience of  its  great  cup,  and  the  ruthless  fury  of  the 
clouds  that  so  often  blotted  out  its  heaven,  drove  the 
worshippers  to  the  lowlands  ;  and  there  the  frequent 
austerit)^  of  the  elements,  aided  by  the  old  love  of  art, 
compelled  the  erection  of  the  temples  you  see  beginning 
to  fleck  the  dusky  background  of  the  rocks  and  forests. 
But  the  more  progressive  section  of  the  community, 
who  favoured  no  temple  but  the  open  heaven,  had 
their  fears  as  to  the  future  allayed  by  a  written  agree- 
ment signed  by  all  that  it  should  be  a  penal  offence  to 
propose  a  priesthood  or  a  service  for  them.  Everyone 
may  worship  where  he  pleases,  within  these  tabernacles 
made  with  hands  or  without  in  the  pantheon  of  all  men 
and  all  gods,  in  the  star- vaulted  minster  of  infinity." 

It  was  indeed  an  impressive  sight  as  we  approached 
and  the  dim  sierra  grew  into  a  stupendous  range  that 
overshadowed  us  ;  in  its  midst  rose  gigantic  the  gleam- 
ing peak  of  their  fiery  monarch  dominating  all.  Abov^e 
him  hung,  as  if  to  shade  him  from  the  rude  fire  of  the 
sun,  a  great  tree  of  smoke  w^hose  leafage  touched  the 
heaven,  and  majestically  swung  in  the  wind.  At  its 
roots  the  forests  and  marble  fanes  were  dwarfed.  No 
eloquence  of  gesture  or  of  word  could  make  me  turn 
my  gaze  from  him  to  them  ;  but  a  lower  bastion  of 
mountains  in  front  moved  upwards  and  blotted  out  his 
serenity.  Then  I  saw  the  magnitude  of  the  temples, 
dwarfing  as  tiiey  did  the  loftiest  trees  of  the  forest. 

I  asked  him  where  the  houses  were,  and  with  some 

reluctance  he  pointed  off  to  the  right,  where  nothing 

could  be  distinguished.     Then  my  mind  ran  on  to  the 

symbols  of  civilised  life,  and  I  inquired  for  the  schools 

and  other  educational  institutions. 
9 


130  Riallaro 

"  There  are  none,"  he  said.  "  They  are  only  sym- 
bols and  nurses  of  inequality.  After  we  had  abolished 
caste  and  class  and -social  distinctions,  we  soon  came 
to  see  that  the  most  offensive  of  all  was  culture,  and 
especially  scholarship  and  learning.  Who  contemns 
his  neighbour  so  much  as  the  pedagogue  that  knows 
a  language  or  a  series  of  facts  more  than  other  men  ? 
Academic  snobbery  is  the  most  pernicious,  most  gall- 
ing ;  for  it  can  immediately  put  in  its  proofs  of  the 
superiority  it  claims  ;  it  can  rout  all  but  its  equal  and 
rival.  It  is  the  most  exclusiv^e,  most  presuming,  most 
irritating.  We  started  with  universities  and  academies 
and  technical  schools,  under  the  impression  that,  by 
making  them  free  to  all,  we  should  give  all  equal 
privileges.  Before  we  were  through  a  generation  of 
our  new  history  the  fallacy  became  transparent.  We 
were  rapidly  manufacturing  a  class  of  intellectual 
peacocks,  or  at  least  men  and  women  who  sneered  at 
the  vulgar  herd.  By  our  constitution  every  citizen 
was  entitled  to  a  certain  minimum  of  food  and  clothing 
in  the  year.  The  scholar  could  always  live  on  less 
than  this,  and,  by  offering  the  surplus  as  payment,  he 
could  get  others  to  perform  the  mechanical  duties  of 
his  life.  He  had  what  he  wanted  in  free  libraries  and 
laboratories  and  lectures.  So  he  came  to  have  an 
inordinate  share  of  happiness  ;  and  in  many  cases  he 
had  an  inordinate  scorn  for  the  bulk  of  the  people,  who 
took  no  advantage  of  these  privileges.  A  yearning  for 
books  and  for  exercise  of  the  mind  is  anything  but 
natural  to  most  men,  and  the  nation  was  rapidly  sort- 
ing itself  out  into  a  small  class  who  were  happy  and 
prided  themselves  on  having  everything  they  wanted, 
and  a  majority  who  envied  these  their  content  and 
grumbled  at  the  enormous  wealth  they  had  accumul- 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         131 

ated  in  their  minds.  It  was  true  that  these  men  wrote 
books  and  made  discoveries  and  inventions  ;  but  what 
good  were  their  books  and  facts  and  machines  to  any 
but  themselves  ?  Nobody  else  used  them  or  wished  to 
use  them.  They  might  talk  of  the  advances  of  science 
and  the  nobleness  of  art  and  the  glories  of  literature. 
But  their  talk  was  unreal  to  all  but  their  own  narrow 
circle  ;  for  the  rest  of  the  people  it  was  like  descanting 
on  colours  to  the  blind. 

"  The  worst  was  to  come  ;  there  afterwards  grew  up 
a  class  of  sham  scholars  and  aesthetes  and  critics  who 
learned  the  shibboleths  of  the  scientists  and  artists  and 
writers,  and  used  these  shibboleths  as  instrments  of 
offence  against  what  they  called  outsiders.  There 
were  two  primitive  languages  that  had,  in  earlier  ages 
before  the  migration  and  before  the  growth  of  a  native 
literature,  taken  deep  root  in  education.  These  were 
treated  as  the  marks  and  symbols  of  culture  ;  and 
their  rudiments  were  laboriously  shuffled  through  and 
promptly  forgotten  by  a  large  section,  who  thereupon 
assumed  great  airs  of  superiority'  to  their  neighbours. 
These  counterfeit  scholars  and  critics  made  the  two 
languages  into  a  fence  and  stockade  that  would  defy 
the  assaults  of  the  mob  ;  within  it  they  fell  down  and 
worshipped  as  the  gods  of  the  earth  the  few  who  did 
know  them  well  and  could  speak  them.  Most  of  them 
had  learned  by  rote  some  passages  from  one  or  two  of 
the  favourite  books  in  them  ;  and  they  were  accus- 
tomed, when  they  were  worsted  in  any  conversation  or 
discussion,  to  roll  off,  relevantly  or  irrelevantly,  one 
or  the  other  of  these,  and  thus  silence  their  opponents. 
Only  the  mock  scholars  ever  did  this  ;  the  real  scholars 
knew  too  much  of  these  languages  and  had  too  much 
to  occupy  their  minds  otherwise  to  resort  to  such  trivial 


132  Riallaro 

weapons.  The  contemptuous  manners  of  the  charla- 
tans of  culture  became  insufferable.  You  would  have 
thought  that  there  was  something  divine  in  these 
tongues,  so  fiercely  did  these  bastard  scholars  bridle 
up  at  any  disparagement  of  them  or  any  comparison  of 
them  with  the  vernacular. 

"  The  growth  of  this  charlatanism  became  a  serious 
danger  to  our  socialistic  communit}',  and  it  was 
thought  that  by  its  removal  the  danger  would  be  over. 
Accordingly  it  was  resolved,  only  the  scholars  and 
their  mimics  dissenting,  that  the  stud}-  and  use  of  these 
primitive  languages  should  be  interdicted.  The  books 
written  in  them  were  burnt, — to  the  great  joy  of  the 
boys  and  girls  in  the  seminaries, — and  it  was  made  a 
penal  offence  to  write  or  speak  any  word  of  them. 
There  was  much  sophistry  used  to  get  round  the  law, 
as  a  good  deal  of  Tirralarian  phraseology  was  derived 
from  them.  But  this  difficulty  was  surmounted  by  a 
clearer  and  more  detailed  definition,  and  the  cultured 
hung  their  heads  defeated. 

"  It  was  not  for  long.  Before  another  generation 
had  passed,  the  scholars  had  invented  other  claims  to 
pre-eminence,  other  shibboleths.  Now  it  was  the  laws 
of  nature  and  the  laws  of  beauty  that  supplied  the  plat- 
form for  scorn  of  neighbours.  The  scientists  and  artists 
and  critics  of  art  became  the  small  privileged  class,  who 
had  more  than  their  fair  share  of  happiness  and  con- 
tent. They  produced  something  that  seemed  to  be  of 
more  value  than  the  musty  books  of  the  scholars  writ- 
ten in  languages  that  none  but  themselves  could  read. 
And  their  humours  and  superiority  were  borne  with  at 
first  for  the  sake  of  their  discoveries  and  useful  con- 
trivances and  beautiful  works.  It  was  they  who  built 
the  temples  and  decorated  them  with  such  splendour 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         133 

and  filled  them  with  such  machines  and  expedients  for 
the  use  and  comfort  of  the  citizens.  They  were  few, 
and  not  ver}^  obtrusive  in  their  contempt  for  the  mul- 
titude, and  their  superior  airs  were  counterbalanced  by 
their  usefulness. 

' '  This  tolerance  was  a  mistake.  The  idea  of  having 
exclusiveness  without  detriment  to  the  socialistic  prin- 
ciple was  only  a  dream.  There  sprang  up  the  fringe 
of  insolent  make-believe  again.  Herds  of  pretenders 
to  art  or  science  or  criticism  flocked  into  the  universi- 
ties and  technical  schools.  Thej^  gabbled  of  genius 
and  talent,  of  principles  and  laws,  of  elements  and 
atoms,  of  cells  and  tissues,  and  of  ideals  and  the  spirit 
of  beauty.  The  trick  was  more  transparent  than  the 
other,  for  they  had  to  use  the  vernacular  in  their  pat- 
ter ;  and  a  good  deal  of  it  was  manifest  nonsense  to 
the  simplest  mind,  whilst  the  astuter  amongst  the 
uneducated  stripped  even  their  most  high-sounding 
maxims  and  laws  into  the  nakedest  of  truisms.  But 
the  empiric  scientists  and  artists  and  aesthetes  shifted 
their  ground  ev^ery  year  and  manufactured  other  and 
more  mystic  phraseology.  It  was  difficult  to  follow 
them  through  th^r  thickets  and  labyrinths  of  gibberish 
by  which  they  kept  off  those  whom  they  were  pleased 
to  call  the  rabble.  They  became  almost  as  stupidly 
contemptuous  and  insolent  as  the  possession  of  the 
rudiments  of  the  most  unintelligible  languages  could 
have  made  them. 

"  It  came  to  be  clear  that  the  old  danger  to  equality 
had  only  taken  a  new  form.  The  mass  of  the  nation 
clamoured  against  the  new  pretensions  of  culture. 
They  would  hear  of  nothing  but  the  abolition  of  its 
factories,  as  the}-  called  the  universities  and  schools  of 
art.     What  would  come  of  the  principle  of  socialism  if 


134  Riallaro 

this  aristocracy  of  genius  and  talent,  brummagem  or 
real,  was  to  be  let  alone  with  its  capacity  to  blow  itself 
out  with  its  limitless  vanity  about  its  own  importance  ? 
No  sane  man  would  answer  for  the  consequences  if  the 
wild  rage  of  the  uneducated  was  allowed  to  vent  itself 
on  this  superficial  pretence  and  shallow  scorn.  Schol- 
ars, scientists,  artists,  critics,  and  the  parasitic  crew 
that  battened  on  their  results  and  used  them  offensively 
against  the  multitude  would  fall  in  one  great  welter  of 
blood.  The  gentler  section  of  the  community  could 
not  look  on  this  risk  to  their  ideal  of  societ\'  without  a 
shudder.  They  convened  the  whole  nation,  and  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  it  was  resolved  to  abolish  the 
institutions  that  fostered  science  and  art,  learning  and 
criticism  ;  it  became  high  treason  to  establish  a  library 
or  university,  or  a  school  of  art  or  science,  or  a  semin- 
ary of  literature  or  criticism.  There  were  the  same 
attempts  as  before  to  elude  the  provisions  of  the  law 
and  get  round  it  by  quibble  and  sophism;  but  this  led 
only  to  greater  stringencj^  and  detail  in  its  clauses.  It 
was  made  penal  to  write  a  book,  or  make  a  scientific 
discovery,  or  invent  any  contrivance,  or  produce  any 
work  of  art  ;  and  j-ou  may  be  quite  sure  that,  with 
the  bulk  of  the  people  acting  policeman  and  spy  for  the 
law,  it  was  soon  carried  into  force,  and  pictures  and 
statues  and  books  and  machines  ceased  to  be  made. 
The  insolence  and  contempt  of  the  intellectual  parasites 
had  no  soil  to  fatten  on,  and  ultimately  vanished  from 
the  state." 

He  stopped  with  a  snap  of  the  jaw  that  said  plainly: 
"There  now;  are  you  satisfied?  If  not,  you  are  a 
most  unreasonable  being.  Where  will  you  find  a  civil- 
isation grander  than  ours  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ?  " 

I  was  by  no  means  satisfied.     He  had  left  one  of  the 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         135 

main  branches  of  my  question  unanswered.  He  had 
explained  the  history  of  the  higher  institutions  and  the 
fate  of  the  sciences  and  art  and  literature;  but  I  had 
asked  him  about  the  schools.  I  still  pressed  the  ques- 
tion. 

"  Ay,  that  was  another  danger  to  the  social  constitu- 
tion. The  energy  of  talent  and  genius,  and  the  sham 
intellectualism  chased  from  one  post  of  vantage  took 
refuge  in  another,  A  pedagogic  class  sprang  up  that 
would  have  grown  into  a  most  contemptuous  and  insol- 
ent aristocracy.  The  loud  and  haughty  arrogance  and 
overbearing  dogmatism  of  the  charlatan  fringe  of  the 
profession  were  beginning  to  impress  the  bulk  of  the 
nation  with  disgust  and  alarm,  when  there  arose  a 
fierce  rebellion  among  the  scholars.  The  hundreds  of 
mean-spirited  empirics  that  had  crept  into  the  ranks 
of  teachers  for  the  sake  of  the  emoluments  in  the  shape 
of  prestige  and  opportunity  for  the  scorn  of  neighbours 
had  had  to  resort  to  the  most  tyrannical  and  cruel 
methods  in  order  to  keep  discipline.  A  few  genuine 
instructors  there  were,  who  were  able  to  cope  with  the 
knavishness  of  the  worst  of  pupils  by  means  of  their 
strength  of  character  and  power  of  sympathy  and 
imagination  ;  they  always  elicited  what  was  best  in  the 
embryo  humanitj^  that  came  into  their  hands  to  be 
moulded  ;  they  could  use  the  laughter  and  sympathy 
of  the  majority  to  whip  the  offensive  disposition  and 
will  out  of  the  laggards  and  would-be  rebels  ;  and  the 
latter  were  cowed  and  disciplined  without  any  sense  of 
unfair  treatment.  But  the  closing  of  the  channels  of 
science  and  art  and  criticism  to  the  aristocratic  quack- 
ery, that  flows,  if  unchecked,  from  the  corrupt  fountains 
of  human  nature,  flooded  the  profession  with  super- 
cilious  pretenders.     Their   scholars  easily   measured 


136  Riallaro 

their  intelligence  and  sincerity,  and  turned  the  school- 
rooms into  pandemonium.  The  high-flying  charlatans 
conferred  together  and  invented  new  and  cruel  modes 
of  punishment.  They  introduced  a  reign  of  terror 
into  the  schools.  The  boys  and  girls  formed  secret 
societies  which  combined  into  one  great  brotherhood 
all  over  the  island.  They  drilled  in  darkness  and 
armed  ever}'  member  with  a  catapult  and  pea-shooter. 
The}^  wrote  the  agreement  and  signed  it  in  their  own 
blood,  and  managed  to  keep  the  proposed  rebellion 
shrouded  in  mystery  for  five  whole  days,  for  it  was 
strictly  confined  to  those  above  the  age  of  twelve.  But 
the  fear  that  it  would  leak  out  precipitated  the  rising  ; 
and  the}'  drove  the  schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses 
out  under  a  fierce  fire  of  peas  and  pebbles,  till  wounded 
and  bleeding  the  charlatans  took  refuge  up  the  mount- 
ains amid  the  snow,  or  in  the  waves  of  the  beach, 
ducking  to  avoid  the  missiles.  The  rout  was  most 
ignominious,  and  the  scholars  were  able  to  dictate 
their  own  terms.  It  was  agreed  that  the}-  should  be 
exempted  from  school  and  family  discipline  and  be 
admitted  to  the  full  citizenship.  For  it  was  seen  that 
the  exclusion  of  children  above  the  age  of  twelve  from 
the  schools  would  so  reduce  the  numbers  of  the  in- 
solent parasites  and  shams  in  the  profession  as  to 
remove  the  forefront  of  the  offence. 

"  But  it  was  found  that  twelve  was  a  mere  artificial 
limit.  Inspired  by  the  example  of  their  predecessors, 
the  ten-year-olds  made  a  successful  revolution  and  had 
the  minimum  age  of  citizenship  reduced  to  ten.  Still  the 
pedants  were  felt  to  be  a  most  offensively  arrogant 
class  ;  the  smaller  their  numbers  grew,  the  more  they 
plumed  themselves  on  their  superiority.  And  every 
new  rebellion  against  their  authority  w^as  aided  and 


The  Voyage  to  Tirralaria         137 

abetted  by  the  multitude,  who  huzzaed  as  the  cata- 
pults of  the  pigmy  forces  swept  the  field  and  the  vol- 
leys from  their  pea-shooters  told  with  deadly  effect,  and 
after  the  defeat  of  the  pedagogues  granted  citizenship 
to  every  child  of  a  certain  age.  Victory  followed 
victory  till  at  last  it  seemed  a  farce  to  have  schools  at 
all.  They  were  turned  into  playhouses  for  stormy  or 
wet  weather,  and  the  limit  of  age  was  removed  from 
citizenship.  Eviery  child,  as  soon  as  his  legs  would 
carry  him  and  his  tongue  would  wag,  could  come  to 
the  conventions  of  the  people  and  record  his  vote.  It 
greatly  encouraged  marriage  and  the  increase  of  fami- 
lies, for  a  man  or  woman  with  a  dozen  or  score  of 
children  had  become  a  power  in  the  state.  Thus  the 
last  vestige  of  privilege  disappeared,  and  with  it  the 
last  chance  of  intellectual  charlatanism  forming  an 
aristocracy.  Every  man  was  like  his  neighbour,  and 
for  that  matter  so  was  every  child.  Sex,  age,  genius, 
talent,  profession,  trade  had  ceased  to  form  the  basis 
of  caste.  Equality  within  the  nation  had  at  last  been 
reached." 

There  was  unspeakable  complacence  on  his  face; 
and  3'et  my  look  of  interrogation  broke  it  up.  I  had 
heard  much  about  the  professions  and  their  history 
in  Tirralaria.  I  had  heard  nothing  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession. I  wondered  how  they  guaranteed  the  healing 
art. 

"  Oh,  as  for  that,  it  disappeared  in  the  earliest  jetsam 
of  the  communit}'.  Of  the  charlatans  and  nose-elev- 
ators the  privileged  doctors  were  the  worst.  They 
blundered  and  buried  their  blunders,  and  wildly  re- 
sented every  question.  They  kept  up  a  mysterious 
patter  that  was  of  the  very  essence  of  aristocracy  and 
privilege.     The  atmosphere  of  superstition  that  they 


138  Riallaro 

threw  round  their  old-wives'  remedies  imposed  upon 
men  when  they  were  sick  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  were 
well  their  fear  vanished,  and  they  determined  to  be 
clear  of  the  empiricism  and  mummery  of  the  profession. 
And  at  last,  after  a  great  plague  had  laughed  at  their 
charms  and  talismans  and  skill,  and  swept  half  the 
nation  down  to  the  worms,  their  quackery  had  become 
too  apparent.  One  third  of  them  had  taken  boat  and 
migrated  to  other  islands  of  the  archipelago.  Another 
third  had  died  of  their  own  plague- nostrums  and  salves. 
The  remainder  had  lost  their  self-confidence  and  dog- 
matism and  were  willing  to  acknowledge  that  they 
knew  little  if  any  but  the  simplest  diseases,  and  to 
these  they  applied  the  herbs  and  salves  that  every  old 
woman  tried.  The  nation  took  them  in  their  mood  of 
humility  and  destroyed  the  fences  round  the  profession. 
Everyone  was  left  free  to  use  his  own  remedies.  In  a 
fit  of  generosity  they  handed  over  the  secrets  of  their 
trade  to  the  public,  and  salves  and  medicaments  and 
pills  and  powders  were  manufactured  wholesale  by  the 
state  chemists  and  issued  free  with  instructions  for 
their  use.  Whether  it  was  the  abolition  of  the  caste 
or  not,  the  death-rate  has,  if  anything,  decreased,  and 
plagues  are  no  more  frequent  than  they  were  before. 
Everyone  who  treats  another  and  kills  him  is  liable 
to  punishment  by  the  state.  So,  few  undertake  to  pre- 
scribe, and  every  citizen  is  responsible  for  hi-s  own 
treatment.  In  times  of  privilege  a  doctor  was  licensed 
to  kill  with  impunity ;  he  and  his  brethren  could  always 
throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  any  inquiry  by  technical 
terms  and  abracadabra.  We  are  rid  of  that  chicanery, 
and  in  health  and  death-rate  we  are  no  worse  off  than 
before.     So  much  for  physic." 


CHAPTER  XV 


TIRRALARIA 


I  HAD  other  questions;  but  we  had  run  into  a  basin 
that  had  once  been  a  harbour.  Every  bastion  and 
rampart  had  been  pounded  and  bruised  by  the  billows 
till  the  debris  la}'  scattered  along  the  beach.  Every 
house  and  building  stood  in  dilapidation.  Yet  to 
look  upwards  over  the  terraced  slopes  of  the  lower  hills 
was  still  to  think  of  paradise.  Magnificent  temples, 
pure  with  marbles  and  broken  in  outline  with  minarets 
and  towers  and  niched  statues,  dwarfed  the  forest  trees 
or  the  cliflF  over  which  they  stood.  There  was  not  a 
meaner  building  to  be  seen.  It  looked  as  if  only  the 
gods  dwelt  here  amid  blossoming  or  fruited  trees;  and 
streams  flashed  at  intervals  athwart  the  verdant  slopes  ; 
and  over  a  precipice  or  down  a  ravine  they  smote  the 
dark  rock  with  the  noise  of  their  silver  sword  ;  and  at 
every  impulse  from  the  capricious  fan  of  the  wind  the 
emerald  face  of  the  cliff  shone  faintly  through  the  silver 
veil  of  water  that  twisted  back  into  a  single  thread 
again.  Up  for  hundreds  of  feet  the  great  stairs  of  the 
hills  mounted,  each  step  crowned  with  a  gleaming  fane 
and  enriched  with  meadow  and  orchard.  And  Time, 
the  supreme  artist,  had  been  there  with  his  brush.  I 
could  see  the  moss  and  ivy  and  other  coloured  creepers 

139 


140  Riallaro 

brocade  the  human  architecture  and  soften  the  gleam 
of  the  marble  with  their  cool  tracer3\  Beneath  the 
warm  passion  of  the  setting  sun  the  picture  was  most 
entrancing.  Nothing  was  too  new.  There  was  a 
quaint  tone  from  the  centuries  even  about  the  motley 
garments  that  clothed  the  throng  of  beggars  in  the 
roads  and  lanes  ;  for  there  were  no  streets  and  no  com- 
fortable looking  citizens  and  burghers  to  be  seen, 
unless  the  loungers  that  crowded  the  arcades  and  piaz- 
zas of  the  temples  and  leaned  against  the  pillars  up  the 
hill  were  of  that  class.  I  supposed  that  some  convul- 
sion of  nature  had  wrecked  the  edifices  of  the  flat  by 
the  beach  and  the  piers  of  the  harbour,  and  that  there 
had  been  no  time  or  purpose  for  rebuilding  them,  and 
as  the  sun  flared  up  from  beneath  the  turban  of  clouds 
that  hid  his  disk,  the  softened  colours  stole  into  the 
rents  and  crevices  of  the  ruins  and  raised  them  into 
beauty.  The  dim  suffusion  of  rose  lent  a  picturesque 
warmth  even  to  the  rags  and  patches  of  the  lazzaroni 
that  smeared  with  unctuous  indolence  every  available 
resting-place. 

I  was  glad  to  get  on  shore;  for  the  rancid  food  of 
the  falla  had  not  been  to  my  taste,  and  the  foul  odour 
and  sluttishness  of  the  cabin  were  alone  enough  to 
close  the  pores  of  appetite.  There  was  at  least  power 
to  move  away  from  these  on  land. 

Yet  the  change  was  not  altogether  for  the  better. 
Dry  though  the  roads  and  earth  underfoot  were  from 
long  absence  of  rain,  the  nose  was  still  assailed  bj'' 
something  that  seemed  to  strike  out  from  all  quarters. 
A  whiff  of  the  sea  wind  would  now  and  again  beat  it 
down  only  to  make  it  more  obtrusive.  The  whole 
putrescence  of  the  earth  seemed  to  have  found  here  a 
laj'-stall.     Garrulesi   looked  quite  unconscious  of  it. 


Tirralaria  141 

We  hurried  along  over  prostrate  bodies  that  as  the 
shadows  clotted  into  night  often  tripped  me  up.  They 
might  have  been  logs,  so  irresponsive  were  they  even 
to  the  impact  of  ni}-  toes.  I  soon  learned  to  jump  over 
everything  that  seemed  to  gather  more  darkness  to  it, 
and  after  a  time  we  began  to  ascend,  and  the  streaks 
of  moveless  humanity  lay  along  instead  of  athwart  our 
path.  An  occasional  snore  or  groan  or  sigh  told  us  of 
laj'ers  of  it  beneath  the  trees  to  right  and  left.  One 
consolation  was  our  gradual  escape  from  the  purgatory 
of  stenches  as  we  rose.  What  surrounded  us  I  could 
not  see,  but  it  seemed  heaven  to  all  the  senses,  so 
keenly  did  they  sympathise  with  that  of  smell  in  its 
new  freedom. 

We  wound  and  zigzagged  ever  upwards  till  at  last 
we  reached  the  portico  and  arcade  of  one  of  the  great 
edifices  I  had  seen  from  the  sea.  Time  and  the  sea- 
sons, I  could  perceive,  even  in  the  underlight  of  the 
stars,  had  carved  and  wrought  its  walls  with  eccentric 
design.  And  no  human  hand,  as  far  as  I  could  see, 
had  interfered  with  their  workmanship.  They  had 
been  analytic  more  than  synthetic  architects,  for,  when 
we  went  inside,  the  stars  peered  down  on  us  through 
chinks  and  rents  with  impudent  curiosit}'. 

It  was  indeed  a  strange  building,  A  great  torch 
flared  over  what  had  once  been  the  altar,  and  moved 
and  guttered  in  the  baffling  draughts.  As  the  eyes 
focussed  themselves  to  the  sandwiched  light  and  gloom, 
I  saw  a  great  tablet  of  marble  with  a  raised  map  of 
some  mountainous  country  upon  it  in  spent  grease  and 
resin  ;  and  the  huge  fagot  of  pine  splinters  and  pitch 
that  was  stuck  into  a  rent  in  it  was  still  at  its  work  of 
mapping  in  relief.  I  followed  the  flicker  of  the  lambent 
flame  upwards  and  was  amazed  by  the  height  of  the 


142  Riallaro 

roof  or  dome  above  the  pillared  nave  and  aisles.  Even 
yet  beneath  the  grime  and  smoke  of  ages  and  the  litter 
of  myriads  of  birds  I  could  see  carved  woodwork  of 
graceful  or  fantastic  shape  and  an  occasional  dim  relic 
of  some  gigantic  fresco.  The  windows  were  choked 
with  logs  and  branches  of  trees  and  debris  of  all  kinds, 
and  3'et  they  showed  how  marvellous  the}-  were  in 
their  grace  and  magnitude.  How  the  architects  could 
have  raised  that  stupendous  mass  of  stone  to  resist  the 
centuries,  how  they  could  have  hung  that  sea  of  stone 
foliage  and  flower  in  mid-air,  were  bewildering  ques- 
tions. I  could  see  the  graceful  floral  shapes  even 
underneath  the  guano  of  ages. 

It  w^as  the  scurviest  sight  I  had  seen  for  many  a  day; 
but  the  w^orst  was  to  come.  The  crowd  of  rather 
noble-featured  beggars  that  jostled  each  other  on  all 
sides  were  evidentlj-  preparing  for  rest.  Mats  of  tree 
bark  or  dried  leaves  of  a  tough  texture  were  being 
slung  like  hammocks  from  every  corner  of  vantage. 
Garrulesi  handed  me  one  from  a  niche  in  the  wall  and 
some  cordage,  and  led  me  to  a  space  between  two  pil- 
lars that  was  still  unoccupied.  Dozens  came  in  after- 
wards and  hung  their  mats  above  me  and  below  me 
and  on  both  sides  of  me  till  I  felt  stifled  by  the  slung 
and  snoring  humanity  that  festooned  me  round.  He 
also  pitched  into  my  hanmiock  some  hard  fruits  and 
dried  meats,  w^hich  I  munched  till  I  fell  asleep  with 
the  fatigue  of  the  unwonted  exercise.  When  I  awoke 
in  the  morning  this  great  ecclesiastical  dormitory  was 
unslinging  itself.  Unfledged  deities  were  sitting  in 
their  hammocks  as  far  up  into  the  clustering  darkness 
of  the  dome  as  my  eye  could  reach,  and  yawning  and 
rubbing  their  grimy  eyelids  with  their  grimy  hands. 
They  did  not  seem  to  notice  the  stercoraceous  volley 


Tirralaria  143 

from  the  restless  birds  as  the  winged  multitude  flashed 
and  screamed  athwart  the  shadows  or  rustled  and  tore 
through  the  withered  branches  that  filled  the  windows. 
Some  of  these  callow  gods  descended  the  pillars  or  the 
festoons  of  sleeping  mats  by  finger  and  toe  as  nimbly 
as  monkeys.  Others  were  gathered  round  a  great  fire 
b)^  the  altar  roasting  grains  or  kernels  of  fruit,  whilst 
in  corners  lounged  groups  munching  ugly  viands  that 
they  held  in  their  hands. 

I  w^as  marvelling  over  this  stupendous  rookery, 
watching  its  antics  as  it  unrolled  itself  out  of  the  coil 
of  dreams  and  descended  with  its  mats  by  ledges  out 
into  the  foliated  and  clustered  pillars,  when  Garrulesi 
appeared.  I  scarcely  recognised  him,  so  transformed 
was  he  by  his  change  of  dress.  Instead  of  the  spruce 
garments  of  Aleofane  that  added  such  neatness  to  his 
oratory,  he  had  clothed  himself  in  a  motley  collection 
of  rags  of  varied  colour  and  texture.  His  beard  hung 
in  smeary  locks,  his  hair  was  a  mop,  and  by  some  pro- 
cess that  was  almost  artistic  he  had  begrimed  his  feat- 
ures and  hands.  He  did  not  leave  me  time  to  question 
or  reflect  on  the  transformation  of  the  divine  demagogue 
into  the  beggar,  for  he  threw  into  my  mat  a  bundle  of 
choice  antiquities  that  might  perhaps  have  brought 
twopence  in  any  rag  market.  He  assisted  me  to  disen- 
tangle the  foul  and  rent  miscellany  and  to  tack  them 
together  over  my  nakedness.  My  other  garments  he 
took  from  me,  and,  bidding  me  follow,  hid  them,  I 
alone  present,  in  a  secret  crevice  of  a  vault  under  the 
edifice;  he  rolled  a  huge  stone  in  order  to  conceal  the 
aperture. 

He  explained  to  me  that  I  must  adopt  in  paradise 
the  primitive  clothing  of  paradise,  and  that  to  appear 
in  other  guise  would  offend  the  humility  and  sense  of 


T44  Riallaro 

symmetry  of  his  people.  The  greatest  sages  had  pre- 
ferred beggardom  and  a  crust  to  wealth  and  luxury, 
and  what  could  any  nation  do  better  than  to  follow 
their  example  ?  And  at  this  point  it  flashed  upon  me 
that  the  crowds  whom  I  had  taken  for  beggars  the 
night  before  were  representatives  of  the  nation. 

When  we  returned  to  the  temple  above,  we  found  all 
the  pillars  and  niches  and  roofs  free  from  their  chaplets 
and  festoons  of  sleeping  mats,  and  the  whole  frippery 
stowed  away  in  holes  and  crevices  of  the  walls.  The 
birds  had  the  upper  ranges  all  to  themselves  and  were 
evidently  satisfied  with  the  division  of  the  space,  for 
the)^  had  ceased  their  screaming  and  uneasy  flight. 
The  marble  floor  was  covered  with  groups  standing,  or 
sitting,  or  lying,  engaged  in  easy  conversation  or  in 
cooking  or  eating  food.  ]\Iost  of  the  night's  occupants 
had  evidentl}-  gone  outside.  I  now  began  to  see 
that  most  of  those  who  cooked  were  beardless,  and  al- 
though the  rags  of  the  two  sexes  were  indistinguish- 
able, I  could  separate  them  b}'  the  different  outlines  of 
the  forms  and  faces.  There  was  little  respect  or  honour 
paid  to  the  gentler  sex  ;  the}'  were  jostled  and  pushed 
about  ;  they  had  to  look  after  themselves  and  their  in- 
terests. The  men  had  clearly  all  cooked  their  morning 
meal  before  ;  the  women  had  to  be  content  with  the 
remains  of  the  fire  and  the  remains  of  the  heap  of  food 
that  had  been  piled  in  one  of  the  corners  of  the  edifice. 
There  was  undoubtedly  equality  of  the  sexes  ;  gallantry 
and  chivalry  had  been  banished  as  an  insult  to  their 
common  humanity. 

After  a  time  I  could  see  that  the  women  were  strug- 
gling to  seize  a  share  of  the  food,  not  for  themselves, 
but  for  others  who  were  sick  or  weak  or  deformed. 
The  stronger  men  would  have  had  it  all  but  for  this, 


Tirralaria 


145 


and  the  helpless  would  have  gone  unbreakfasted.  The 
wouieii  were  most  of  them  as  brawny  and  tanned  by 
the  weather  as  the  other  sex,  and  they  had  come  by 
long  struggle  and  heredit}^  to  be  able  almost  to  hold 
their  own.  They  hustled  the  crowd  that  stood  in  their 
way  and  gave  tit  for  tat  with  as  lusty  a  muscle  as  if 
they  had  navvied  from  infanc}'.  But  it  was  interesting 
to  see  in  them  the  survival  of  their  old  tenderness  for 
the  sick  and  feeble.  It  was  doubtless  their  maternal 
functions  that  had  saved  this  relic  from  the  general 
wreck  of  femininity. 


■■V^  t*(   I-.  ■-^-■t;':-*-'  ■■'4.  /Q   IJ 


©1^; 


'^^.^'^' QM^f§>^' 


CHAPTER  XVI 


SNEEKAPE 


THERE  was  one  exception  to  the  rule  of  masculine 
indifference.  I  had  been  watching  the  figure  for 
some  time  amongst  the  women  before  I  discovered  it  to 
be  that  of  a  man.  He  had  a  small,  well-proportioned 
head,  even  smaller  than  that  of  most  of  the  women  ; 
and  it  was  poised  on  his  long  neck  like  a  bird's  ;  it  had 
such  rapidity  and  variety  and  ease  of  motion  as  if  it 
were  on  a  universal  joint  ;  it  wiggled  and  bobbed,  it 
danced  and  undulated  to  every  emotion  that  came  into 
his  breast,  while  the  little  bead  eyes  twinkled  and  leered 
and  winked  ;  no  head  other  than  a  sparrow's  ever 
pirouetted  and  jerked  and  quivered  with  such  manifest 
enjoyment  and  self-admiration.  He  thought  himself  a 
humourist  too,  for  some  of  the  younger  women  smirked 
and  giggled  as  he  stretched  his  wide  mouth  and  curved 
the  corners  of  his  eyes  and  shook  and  wagged  his  little 
head.  His  themes  were  evidently  the  men  around,  but 
his  voice  was  too  low  and  his  gusto  over  his  own  jests 
too  great  for  anj'  of  them  to  reach  beyond  his  immedi- 
ate circle  ;  like  all  wits  of  the  shallow  type,  he  was  his 
own  best  audience,  though  I  could  see  he  needed  a 
feminine  smile  somewhere  about.  At  first  I  had  ad- 
mired his  gallantry  and  kindness,  for  he  was  the  only 

146 


Sneekape  i47 

man  who  sided  with  the  women  in  their  struggle  for 
food.  But  afterwards  I  hesitated,  for  I  began  to  see 
that  it  was  only  the  women  of  handsome,  stalwart  form 
and  finely  moulded  face,  the  women  who  needed  no 
help,  that  he  fidgeted  and  bustled  about  ;  if  ever  he 
helped  any  who  could  not  help  themselves,  I  saw  that 
they  had  graceful  forms  and  the  hectic  beauty  of  the 
delicate.  Another  feature  of  his  chivalry  that  low- 
ered my  first  opinion  of  him  was  that,  nimble  and 
sedulous  though  he  was  in  his  attentions,  what  he  did 
was  superfluous  ;  even  the  women  who  most  smirked 
at  his  jokes  and  innuendoes  could  not  conceal  a  lurking 
contempt  for  his  officiousness  and  feminine  vigilance 
about  trifling  minutiae. 

Tall  and  graceful  though  he  was,  with  an  air  of  brisk 
intelligence  and  dapper  education,  I  began  to  take  an 
inexplicable  dislike  to  him.  He  seemed  to  have  some 
magnetic  sense  of  this,  for,  after  appearing  unconscious 
of  my  glance  for  a  long  time,  he  sidled  up  to  me  and 
with  a  purring,  confidential  tone  in  his  voice  and  a  wise 
wag  of  his  little  head  and  self-appreciative  twinkle  of 
his  little  eyes,  he  apologised  in  the  Aleofanian  tongue 
for  addressing  me  ;  but  he  heard  from  my  accents  that 
I  was  a  stranger,  and  felt  drawn  to  me,  as  he  was  an 
alien,  too,  in  a  strange  land.  If  he  felt  any  recoil 
against  my  somewhat  brusque  rejection  of  his  sym- 
pathy, he  did  not  betray  it.  He  wheedled  himself 
b}-  abject  subservience  and  subtle  self-abasement  into 
what  he  thought  my  confidence.  He  artfully  fished 
about  for  topics  on  which  he  could  agree  with  me,  and 
ostentatiously  paraded  a  yearning  to  know  ni}'  opinions 
on  them  ;  he  looked  transports  of  admiration  and  en- 
thusiasm for  them  when  uttered;  and  the  whole  piece 
of  acting  was  done  with  such  an  appearance  of  candour 


14S  Riallaro 

and  amiability  that  I  began  to  feel  myself  discourteous 
and  unjust  in  being  so  surly  to  him.  His  urbanity  and 
sweetness  of  temper  were  never  for  an  instant  ruffled. 
He  wore  his  most  fascinating  smile  as  if  to  the  manner 
born.  He  was  bent  on  being  the  good  Samaritan  to 
my  spiritual  wounds;  he  would  not  probe  a  single  sore  ; 
he  would  apply  balm  to  all  my  sorrows  if  only  he  could 
get  at  them,  if  only  I  would  admit  him  to  my  heart  of 
hearts.  The  kindness,  the  brotherly  love  he  displayed 
for  all  men  at  last  won  me  over  from  my  thorny  silence, 
although  I  still  inwardly  wished  the  fellow  would  in- 
sult me  in  order  that  I  might  have  the  pleasure  of  kick- 
ing him.  With  all  his  suavity  and  cooing  benignancy 
and  hearty  assumption  of  good-fellowship,  he  stirred 
up  in  me  the  savage  irascibility  that  lies  still  in  the 
heart  of  even  the  most  civilised  ;  and  I  did  not  thank 
him  for  it. 

He  had  much  of  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  too,  or 
at  least  a  certain  magnetic  instinct  that  stood  for  it; 
for  he  did  not  follow  up  what  he  manifestly  thought 
his  victory  over  my  churlishness  with  any  use  of  it; 
He  went  off  to  his  group  of  feminine  worshippers.  I 
could  see  from  the  eyes  of  some  of  them  that  his  witch- 
ery had  taken  effect. 

Garrulesi  had  been  outside,  and  his  return  withdrew 
my  observation  from  the  stranger's  sinuous  wiles.  We 
went  outside,  and  my  thoughts  were  caught  up  b}^  the 
sight.  We  stood  on  a  platform  that  overlooked  the 
tranquil  ocean.  Not  a  breath  disturbed  the  morning 
air.  The  sun  from  behind  us  had  not  attained  his 
tropic  strength  ;  his  level  shafts  still  flung  colour  over 
the  land  and  sky,  and  shot  the  silken  fabric  of  the 
slope  before  us  with  fretted  shadow.  The  great  edifice 
out  of  which  we  had  come  threw  a  dark  and  cool  sierra 


Sneekape  ■  149 

out  upon  the  sea  ;  its  lofty  towers  and  pinnacles  and 
domes  lengthening  out  in  silhouette  into  gigantic 
peaks.  Above  us  rose  the  alabaster  cone  of  Klimarol, 
the  smoke-haloed  mountain,  along  the  shoulder  of 
which  the  great  disk  of  the  morning  wove  his  web  of 
shimmering  light.  Our  temple  rose  from  the  plateau 
of  the  front  range,  the  highest  of  all  that  broke  the 
emerald  wave  of  foliage  between  the  sky  line  and  the 
sea. 

He  was  silent  before  my  delight  in  the  scene.  Then 
we  moved  out  into  the  forests  of  palms  and  fruited 
trees.  I  ventured  on  asking  him  about  the  scene  in- 
side the  temple.  He  told  me  that,  when  the  religion 
had  crj'stallised  into  the  socialism  of  gods  and  men,  it 
was  felt  that  the  mere  difference  of  a  material  shell 
.should  not  exclude  the  human-divine  from  the  privileges 
of  the  divine.  Into  these  great  edifices  the  artist  caste, 
so  long  as  it  had  existed,  had  put  all  their  genius  and 
time  and  all  the  wealth  that  they  could  extract  from 
the  people  as  a  whole  or  from  individuals  ;  in  fact,  half 
the  wealth  of  the  nation  had  disappeared  in  them. 
And,  as  b}'  universal  agreement  there  was  no  service 
or  ceremony  performed  in  them,  it  became  obvious  in 
time  that  they  were  a  monstrous  waste,  thus  unutilised, 
when  half  the  people  or  embryo  gods  slept  during  the 
wet  season  in  the  open  air  and  suffered  from  the  in- 
clemency of  the  nights,  whilst  the  other  half  had  only 
roofless  or  dilapidated  huts,  or  caves  or  holes  in  the 
rocks  to  sleep  in.  It  seemed  a  gratuitous  insult  to  the 
slumbering  divinity  within  the  people  to  exclude  them 
from  the  shelter  of  these  great  domes  built  for  divinity. 
The  birds  of  the  air  with  their  excrementitious  filth 
were  allowed  to  nest  there  from  year's  end  to  j'ear's 
end  ;    aud  the  gods  in  human  form,  only  because  they 


150  Riallaro 

were  still  unfledged  and  wingless,  were  fenced  off  from 
the  use  of  this  buried  wealth.  Nothing  seemed  more 
irrational  to  the  Tirralarians  of  a  former  age  than  such 
an  elevation  of  the  mere  beasts  and  the  disembodied 
gods  into  a  special  caste  that  were  to  be  sheltered  and 
roofed  from  the  weather  with  the  noblest  architecture. 
They  shrank  in  horror  from  such  a  violation  of  their 
constitution,  and  thereafter  the}'^  ranged  men  with 
gods  and  winged  beasts.  Some  of  the  temples  have 
been  set  apart  for  the  women  and  children,  who  may, 
however,  penetrate  by  day  into  any  of  the  others  they 
please.  This  that  we  have  left  is  specially  occupied 
by  those  who  are  the  coftncil  of  advisers  of  the  people, 
though  others  may  in  emergency  set  up  their  sleeping 
mats  in  it,  and  the  strangers  who  are  not  feared  or 
suspected  are  housed  here.  It  is  called  the  council- 
and-guest  temple.  But  guests  are  excluded  during 
important  deliberations. 

He  had  mentioned  a  council  of  advisers,  and  I  asked 
him  if  this  weie  the  government  that  they  had.  He 
looked  furtively  round,  and,  seeing  some  rag-poles 
lying  near  under  the  .shade  of  some  trees  and  others 
approaching,  though  at  some  distance,  he  struck  an 
oratorical  attitude  and  laiinched  forth  on  the  enormities 
of  all  governments.  He  was  wound  up  for  hours,  and 
I  saw  no  chance  of  rescue  ;  for  lazzaroni  citizens  littered 
every  corner  with  their  slouching,  rag-patched' fat.  I 
could  gather  from  the  loud  voice  and  the  rhetorical 
touches  that  he  was  addressing  every  ear  within  reach, 
and  giving  unctuous  vent  to  the  ofiicial  creed.  The 
gist  of  what  he  larded  with  eloquence  was  this  :  gov- 
ernment was  an  insult  to  full-grown  humanity  ;  where 
reason  ruled,  every  man  was  a  law  unto  himself  ;  all 
that  was  needed  was  a  committee  selected  from  time  to 


Sneekape 


mi 


time  for  the  distribution  of  the  fruits  of  the  soil  and  the 
gifts  of  nature  ;  there  was  no  labour,  and  therefore  no 
need  of  organising  labour  ;  there  were  no  lawyers,  no 
police,  no  professions  ;  for  ever}-  man  attended  to  his 
own  needs  ;  whilst  all  worked  as  they  wished  for  all  ; 
nature  dealt  with  the  weak  and  sickly  and  gave  them 
brief  life  and  swift  euthanasia.  It  was  indeed  a  perfect 
life,  where  all  were  equal  and  serene  in  perfect  content, 
and  health,  and  strength. 

I  was  almost  glad  when  the  red-haired  bewitcher  of 
women  approached  and  rescued  me  from  the  declama- 
tory clockwork  and  his  inexorable  pendulum  of  rhetoric. 
A  look  of  disgust  swept  like  a  cloud  over  the  broad  self- 
complacence  of  the  orator's  face  ;  whether  it  was  at  the 
untimely  interruption  of  his  speech  or  at  the  personal- 
ity of  the  intruder  I  could  not  tell  at  the  time  ;  after- 
wards I  saw  that  it  was  the  latter. 

The  amorous  stranger  was  profuse  in  apologetic  flat- 
teries, and  did  his  best  to  soothe  the  injured  dignity  of 
the  people's  adviser.  He  resorted  to  his  confidential 
trick,  and  sidling  up  whispered  in  his  ear  what  seemed 
some  important  secret,  at  the  same  time  throwing  me 
from  his  agile  little  eyes  a  smile  that  was  intended  to 
take  me  into  still  deeper  strata  of  his  confidence.  He 
succeeded  in  neither  project,  and  was  yet  well  satisfied 
with  his  nimble  diplomacy.  There  was  always  an  air 
about  him  as  if  he  were  dealing  with  toy  humanity  that 
might  be  broken  by  rough  usage  ;  he  had  doubtless 
acquired  it  by  long  handling  of  the  merely  amorous 
elements  of  life.  He  moved  with  such  a  familiar  and 
confidential  superiority  even  amongst  strangers,  and 
such  an  interlarding  of  egregious  flattery  and  subtle 
assumption  of  special  and  intimate  friendship  as  im- 
plied lifelong  engagement  in  intrigue  and  the  lowest 


152  Riallaro 

estimate  of  the  intelligence  of  the  women  he  dealt 
with. 

My  gorge  rose  before  he  spoke  a  word  to  me,  and  the 
peddlingly  confidential  manner  had  evidently  the  same 
effect  on  Garrulesi,  for  he  abruptly  turned  his  back 
and  walked  off.  Unabashed,  the  lath-like  diplomat 
laid  his  little  head  close  to  mine,  under  the  assumption 
that  he  had  made  another  conquest.  He  poured  into 
my  ear  faint  praise  of  the  fast  disappearing  orator  and 
subtly  slid  into  a  faint  disparagement.  As  I  held  my 
peace  he  passed  rapidly  into  the  elevation  of  himself 
and  me  into  a  categor}^  by  ourselves  against  all  the 
world.  He  fixed  his  bead  eyes  on  me  with  a  bewitch- 
ing look  as  if  he  sought  the  inmost  depths  of  the  spirit 
and  would  rest  there.  I  lowered  my  glance  with  a 
certain  scorn  and  loathing  that  was  scarcely  full-formed. 
He  clearly  assumed  the  change  to  mean  humble  sub- 
mission to  his  advances  ;  and  he  slyly  entered  on  a 
most  abusive  and  captious  analj'sis  of  Tirralarian  civil- 
isation, wording  it  in  velvet  that,  lest  he  should  be 
mistaken  in  me,  he  could  cover  his  retreat  or  involve 
me  in  the  consequences  of  his  strictures.  He  was  an 
adept  in  white  lies  and  ambiguous  calumnies  that 
seemed  to  do  honour  to  the  victim. 

As  far  as  I  could  gather  from  his  insinuations,  the 
island  was  nothing  but  an  organisation  of  thieves,  who, 
when  they  could  not  get  any  foreigner  to  steal  from, 
had  to  pass  their  time  in  enforced  but  delightful  idle- 
ness. There  was  nothing  to  steal  amongst  themselves. 
That  was  the  meaning  of  the  rags  they  wore.  He 
always  landed  in  a  dress  that  was  a  harmony  of  worth- 
less fragments.  His  first  few  visits  had  been  a  painful 
experience ;  piece  by  piece  his  garments  and  possessions 
had  vanished  no  one  knew  whither  till  he  was  left  naked 


Sneekape  153 

on  his  sleeping  mat,  and  only  the  vanity  of  a  Tirralar- 
iau  buck,  who  wished  to  show  him  his  skill  in  pilfering, 
gave  him  shreds  enough  to  make  a  loin-cloth.  No  one 
of  them  cared  to  have  anything  above  rags  and  a  bare 
subsistence,  for  he  knew  that  if  he  had,  it  would  dis- 
appear mysteriously.  Their  skill  in  purloining  seemed 
like  a  magician's.  It  was  the  only  talent  that  had 
remained  from  their  old  civilisation  ;  into  this  their  in- 
herited cleverness  had  run  ;  and  any  one  of  them  would 
make  a  fortune  either  as  a  juggler  or  as  a  thief  in  any 
other  nation  ;  but  none  of  the  other  islands  of  the 
archipelago  would  admit  them,  knowing  well  which  of 
the  two  professions  would  be  the  more  lucrative  and 
fascinating  for  a  Tirralarian.  So  their  wonderful  gift 
was  hidden  under  a  b.ushel. 

Of  course  I  knew  the  principle  of  the  constitution — 
that  there  should  be  no  private  property.  Property, 
they  held,  is  theft  ;  and  so  to  abolish  theft  they  abol- 
ished property,  and  law  with  it.  Everything  that 
anybody  got  or  made  or  produced  was  anybody's,  and 
they  were  magpies  at  concealment.  The  first  trick 
Garrulesi  taught  me  was  to  stow  awa}'  my  valuables  ;  he 
saw  Sneekape  lead  me  off,  and  I  might  be  quite  sure  that 
for  further  safety  he  had  bestowed  it  in  another  crevice 
that  he  alone  would  know.  Work  had  ceased  gen- 
erations ago,  for  no  one  could  secure  what  he  produced 
unless  he  were  as  sharp  in  pilfering  and  concealing  as 
his  neighbours  ;  and  he  had  not  time  to  learn  the 
secrets  or  the  skill  of  these  arts  when  he  was  busy  with 
other  things.  Every  trade  and  craft  vanished  into 
legerdemain  and  light-fingeredness.  Their  existence 
was  onl}'  hand-to-mouth  ;  and  winter  or  a  hurricane 
or  any  blight  on  the  fruits  of  nature  sent  all  who  had 
not  an  extra  store  of  fat  on  their  bodies  into  the  grave. 


154  Riallaro 

They  had  now  grown  too  indolent  to  fish  or  make  raids 
on  the  wealth  of  their  neighbours.  An  occasional 
atavistic  survival  like  Garrulesi,  with  a  gift  of  talk  and 
a  restless  energy,  went  out  secretly  and  tried  a  mission 
on.  other  islands  that  the  converts  might  bring  their 
goods  with  them  and  help  to  stave  off  the  ever-recur- 
rent evil  day.  It  was  supposed  to  be  the  duty  of  the 
advdsers  of  the  people  like  him  to  supply  everyone  with 
food  and  clothing  and  roofage.  But  it  was  difficult  to 
divide  nothing.  Not  long  after  the  abolition  of  private 
property,  all  property  vanished  that  could  be  stolen  or 
could  retain  its  value  only  by  labour.  They  could  not 
tax,  they  could  not  compel  the  labour  that  ever3'one 
was  supposed  voluntarily  to  contribute  to  the  commun- 
ity ;  and  their  position  had  become  no  enviable  one. 
In  fact  it  was  difficult  to  find  advisers  ;  a  few  re- 
vealed in  their  green  youth,  before  they  knew  the 
relationships  of  things,  a  talent  for  glib  talk,  or  for 
governing,  or  muddling,  and  were  thrust  into  the  posi- 
tion ;  and  they  found  it  no  easy  task  to  relinquish  it, 
hard  and  slavish  though  thej-  came  to  count  it.  When 
they  grew  older  and  wiser  the}-  were  eager  to  get  out  of 
it,  but  flattery  or  persecution  kept  them  at  the  helm  till 
they  dropped  from  old  age  or  disease.  They  were  the 
real  martyrs  of  Tirralaria,  though  many  of  them,  like 
Garrulesi,  enjoj'ed  their  martyrdom  for  a  time,  as  long, 
in  fact,  as  the  atavistic  energy  burned  brightly  in  their 
veins.  A  few  were  so  goaded  b}-  the  slavery  of  the 
position  that  they  feigned  paralysis  of  the  tongue  in 
order  to  be  clear  of  it,  and  they  remained  dumb  till 
death  ;  and  one  or  two  had  been  driven  to  the  extra- 
ordinary activitj'^  of  suicide. 

What  made  the  duty  particularly  difficult  and  offen- 
sive w'as  that  where  there  was  no  law  every  man  was 


Snetkape  155 


his  own  policeman.  Of  course  thej'^  declared  and 
proved  that  there  was  no  crime  amongst  them.  But  it 
depended  on  the  meaning  of  crime  ;  crime  was  a  breach 
of  the  law;  and  where  there  was  no  law  there  could  be 
no  breach  of  the  law.  Instead  of  wiping  out  the  old 
outrages  against  human  nature,  their  socialism  had 
greatlj'  increased  them,  and  they  called  them  peccadil- 
loes. I  would  see  the  ragged  savages  fight  like  wild 
beasts  over  any  accidental  find,  or  even  what  one  had 
failed  to  steal  from  another  ;  and  when  they  had  come 
to  blows,  one  of  the  combatants  had  to  die  unless  a 
crowd  was  near  and  could  separate  them.  Each  knew 
that  the  other,  if  beaten,  could  not  live  and  leave  the 
insult  unavenged  ;  indolence  might  postpone  the  day 
of  revenge  for  a  time,  but  it  was  sure  to  come.  For  his 
own  protection  he  had  to  wipe  out  his  opponent,  and  if 
he  buried  the  bod}'  there  would  never  be  anj^  question. 
For  there  was  no  family  life  or  famih-  love.  The 
unions  were  only  temporary.  The  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  their  society  was  that  they  lived  by  love.  But 
they  more  often  died  by  it.  The  most  fertile  source  of 
fatal  quarrels  was  the  appropriation  of  members  of  the 
opposite  sex.  The  women  had  their  combats,  and 
counted  their  scalps  as  well  as  the  men,  for  the  two 
sexes  were  supposed  to  be  on  an  equality. 

For  many  generations  after  they  had  socialised  pro- 
perty, they  kept  up  households  and  family  life  and 
monogani}'.  But  idleness  produced  libertinism,  and 
libertinism  became  concubinage,  and  then  gave  place 
to  polygamy  and  polyandry.  A  great  rebellion  of  the 
younger  and  unprivileged  in  matrimon}',  both  male  and 
female,  against  the  older  who  monopolised  the  best  and 
fairest  of  the  other  sex  swept  away  the  last  traces  of 
marriage.     It  had  always  been  felt  to  be  an  inconsist- 


156  Paallaro 

ency  that  there  should  be  allowed  in  their  state  the 
private  possession  of  affection  or  of  children.  Children 
were  now  common  property  after  they  could  run  with- 
out their  mothers.  The)'  had  to  look  after  themselves 
if  maternal  care  deserted  them,  and  that  generally 
occurred  after  the  first  year.  The  female  advisers 
were  supposed  to  attend  to  them  ;  but  when  they  had 
no  common  stock  they  had  little  to  give  ;  they  had 
enough  to  do  to  keep  an  eye  on  their  own  and  to  keep 
the  life  in. 

As  for  the  royal  roads  to  education  which  Garrulesi 
would  descant  on  by  the  day,  they  amounted  to  imita- 
tive skill  in  picking  up  the  tricks  of  a  conjurer  and 
thief.  The  education  that  the  royal  roads  led  to  was 
about  as  much  as  would  exist  amongst  a  community  of 
monkeys  or  magpies.  The}'  had  no  arts,  no  learning, 
no  literature  ;  for  these  had,  when  they  existed  amongst 
them,  stirred  envy  and  jealousy,  and  they  were  voted 
by  the  majority  to  be  disturbers  of  peace  and  of  true 
socialistic  civilisation.  How  could  anyone  have  what 
others  could  not  share  in  without  breeding  uneasiness 
and  strife  ?  So  there  was  nothing  then  to  learn  except 
the  supreme  art  of  the  whole  nation — skill  in  pilfering. 
Their  education  in  this  proceeded  every  moment  of 
their  lives,  unless  during  a  famine,  when  no  strangers 
approached  the  island,  and  there  was  food  onlj'  for  the 
strong  who  could  seize  it  and  keep  it.  Then  force 
alone  was  able  to  sustain  life  by  clutching  the  coarse 
remains  of  the  summer's  produce.  A  famine  was  often 
prayed  for  by  those  who  had  the  best  interests  of  the 
nation  at  heart,  for  it  checked  the  overflow  of  the 
people  and  strengthened  the  generations  by  leaving 
only  vigorous  survivors  to  propagate  the  race.  Every 
ten  or  a  dozen  years  the  numbers  became  too  great  for 


Sneekape  157 

what  unaided  nature  within  the  limits  of  the  island 
could  suppl}',  in  spite  of  the  ravages  of  neglect  amongst 
the  children  and  the  effectual  obliteration  of  so  many 
by  quarrels  over  treasure-trove,  thefts,  and  amours  ; 
and  then,  even  without  the  aid  of  a  hurricane,  or  an 
epidemic'  or  blight,  the  shortage  of  food  made  brief 
work  of  the  surplus  population.  Amongst  the  sur- 
vivors the  skeleton  frames  soon  swelled  with  fat  ;  for 
after  a  famine  year,  nature,  having  lain  fallow  for  a 
season,  lavished  all  her  powers  in  superabundance  of 
fruits,  like  a  mother  after  the  punishment  of  her  child, 
exhibiting  her  treasures  of  love  to  it. 

If  there  were  anything  worth  ruling  in  the  island,  it 
would  be  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  with  a  few 
faithful  troops  and  a  few  cart-loads  of  luxuries  to  mas- 
ter it  in  a  day  or  two,  the  whole  people  were  so  lazy  and 
such  kleptomaniacs.  All  the  conqueror  would  have  to 
do  would  be  to  pretend  to  conceal  a  cart-load  of  goods 
in  one  part  of  the  forest  and  another  in  another  part. 
Within  half  an  hour  after  the  concealment  the  whole 
population  would  be  busy  over  them  as  flies  over  pots 
of  treacle  ;  a  few  dozen  men  would  trap  them  clogged 
with  spoil,  or  absorbed  in  hiding  it  or  pilfering  it  when 
hidden.  Their  fingers  were  always  itching  for  goods 
to  steal  ;  it  was  the  only  channel  for  their  great  talents. 
But  what  would  be  the  use  of  them  after  being  trapped 
unless  you  could  distribute  them  through  some  wealthy 
community  like  Aleofane,  and  be  sure  that  you  could 
make  them  disgorge  their  plunder  ?  They  had  nothing 
to  rule,  nothing  to  steal,  nothing  to  divide. 

Yes,  yes,  they  had  once  had  lofty  purposes  and  ideals. 
They  were  going  to  recreate  the  world  when  they 
settled  here.  But  there  were  perpetual  oscillations  for 
many  ages  from  despotism  to  revolution.     The  chiefs 


158  Riallaro 

had  little  thanks  for  their  work.  Their  distribution  of 
labour  and  its  products  was  a  continual  source  of  dis- 
content that  rose  recurrently  into  emeute.  They  had 
to  apply  the  strong  hand  and  suppress  the  journals  and 
journalists  that  encouraged  the  rebellion.  Reign  of 
terror  followed  reign  of  terror,  for  the  people  were 
never  satisfied  ;  whatever  arrangements  were  made, 
some  large  section  of  them  found  them  unjust,  whilst 
some  other  section  cunningly  learned  to  make  more 
than  their  due  share  out  of  them.  Money  had  been 
abolished,  but  everything  that  was  substituted  for  it — 
labour  ticket,  token,  bread,  fruit — came  to  suffer  the 
abuses  of  monej' ;  professions  that  traded  in  the  substi- 
tute sprang  up,  and  attempts  to  suppress  them  only 
made  them  secret  and  virulent.  None  would  take  to 
the  offensive  trades  that  had  to  do  with  stenches  and 
corrupt  matter.  The  burying  of  the  dead,  the  shifting 
of  refuse  and  manure,  the  obliteration  of  filth,  the  un- 
cleaner  domestic  services,  were  left  to  themselves,  and 
plagues  became  common  till  the  advisers  of  the  people 
kidnapped  men  from  outlying  islands,  put  them  in 
chains,  and  set  them  to  these  foul  employments. 

And  at  this  point  he  began  to  whisper  mysteriously 
in  my  ear.  "  I  shall  take  you  some  night,  when  all  in 
our  temple  are  asleep,  to  see  how  they  respect  liberty 
and  equality.  They  have  slaves  who  never  leave  the 
crater  of  Klimarol  except  under  the  whip.  You  have 
seen  its  glow  on  the  sky  of  night.  It  comes  from  the 
burning  of  the  dead  and  of  the  refuse  of  the  temples 
and  huts  of  Tirralaria.  During  the  night  a  detach- 
ment of  slaves  descends  the  mountain  under  the  lash  of 
the  whip;  a  section  of  the  council  superintends  the  work 
by  turns  ;  they  gather  the  debris  of  the  previous  day's 
Tirralarian  civilisation,  and  by  the  morning  they  have 


Sneekape  159 

drawn  it  on  sleds  up  the  snow-cone  ;  and  during  the 
next  da)^  and  night  it  is  thrown  into  the  boiling  lake 
of  lava.  The  stench  is  past  endurance  for  any  who 
have  not  been  brought  up  in  it.  Within  the  crater  are 
raised  and  made  the  produce  and  the  articles  that  those 
below  are  too  idle  or  too  refined  in  senses  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with.  If  it  were  not  for  the  great  slave 
factor^'  within  Klimarol  the  country  would  soon  be 
without  an  inhabitant,  for  they  have  always  been  too 
proud  to  keep  themselves  or  their  land  clean,  and  now 
the}'  are  too  indolent  to  do  it  if  it  were  needed  ;  and 
plagues  of  the  most  virulent  intensity  would  sweep  the 
island. 

"  Not  long  after  they  landed  here  and  abolished  dif- 
ferentiation of  reward  for  labour,  except  a  slight  one 
for  special  emplo5anents  and  professions  and  for  special 
skill,  medicine  was  deserted.  The  night  work  and  the 
offensive  or  cruel  tasks  of  surgery  and  the  constant  in- 
tercourse with  the  weakly  and  sick  and  dying  were 
not  sufficiently  rewarded  to  be  attractive.  The  chiefs 
attempted  to  coerce  the  clever  5-oung  men  and  women 
into  the  profession.  But  their  cleverness  always  en- 
abled them  to  evade  the  order  ;  the}'  were  perpetually 
feigning  sickness  or  paralysis  of  the  arms  and  hands. 
At  first  they  thought  of  teaching  their  Klimarol  slaves 
the  secret  of  the  art,  but  they  shrank  from  putting  the 
lives  of  themselves  and  their  fellow-citizens  into  such 
hands.  So  the  cure  and  care  of  the  sick  and  dying 
have  been  left  to  chance,  which  means  nobody. 

"  This  page  of  their  history  has  been  torn  out  and  a 
fiction  substituted  for  it.  So,  too,  is  the  introduction 
of  slavery  hidden  under  the  pall  of  night,  for  it  is  an 
outrage  on  the  foundation  of  their  community,  the 
dignity  of  man's  nature.     They  count  it  treason  for 


i6o  Riallaro 

any  stranger  to  meddle  with  or  inquire  into  these 
secrets  of  their  prison-house. 

"  They  are  keenly  sensitive  to  an}^  mention  of 
their  gradual  lapse  from  the  great  ideals  with  which 
they  began.  All  were  to  work  voluntarily  for  the 
whole  community;  there  was  abundance  of  everything 
to  be  produced  for  the  use  of  every  citizen.  It  soon 
turned  out  that  no  one  was  to  work;  for  it  is  always 
more  pleasant  for  average  human  nature  to  play  or  idle 
than  to  work.  The  talking  professions  were  flooded  ; 
orators  and  logicians  and  lecturers  and  preachers  and 
writers  soon  came  to  form  more  than  one  half  of  the 
population.  The  other  half  began  to  feel  themselves 
slaves,  and  threw  up  their  spades  and  mattocks  and  the 
tools  of  their  trades.  Nothing  was  produced  but  what 
nature  and  the  slaves  of  Klimarol  gave  them.  And  as 
soon  as  any  compulsion  is  applied  the  cry  of  tyranny 
arises,  and  threatened  rebellion  puts  an  end  to  the 
reform.  Where  there  is  no  force,  no  stimulus,  no  mo- 
tives, it  is  not  difficult  to  see  what  human  nature  will 
do.  To  work  for  the  communit}-  is  too  shadowy  to  be 
effective  ;  it  implies  the  almost  perfect  humanity  to 
begin  with,  which  all  human  social  systems  set  up  as 
their  aim  and  goal. 

"  At  the  beginning  there  were  many  who  were  will- 
ing to  toil  for  the  sake  of  the  ideal,  especially  the  cul- 
tured and  artistic.  They  could  live  on  imagination 
and  its  products.  And  it  was  they  who  erected  these 
marvellous  temples  that  are  now  the  abode  of  the  bat 
and  the  owl  and  the  Tirralarian.  The  real  diflBculty 
came  when  the  measure  of  remuneration  had  to  be 
fixed.  How  were  the  various  trades  and  professions  to 
have  their  relative  values  estimated  ?  That  was  the 
first  rock  on  which  the  new  socialistic  community  split. 


Sneekape  i6i 

At  first  a  rough  time-standard  was  adopted,  the  num- 
ber of  hours  of  work  per  day,  with  some  little  dif- 
ferentiation for  the  various  trades  and  professions, 
according  as  they  were  more  or  less  offensive  or  more 
or  less  intellectual.  But  this  attempt  at  comparison 
of  kinds  of  work  was  only  arbitrary  and  could  never  be 
based  on  any  principle.  It  had  to  be  readjusted  every 
year.  And  as  there  was  a  continual  outcry  against  an 
aristocracy  of  mind  and  one  of  stench,  the  intellectual 
and  offensive  employments  being  fixed  at  a  smaller 
number  of  hours  per  day,  the  whole  system  was  at  last 
abolished,  and  all  had  to  work  the  same  number  of 
hours.  It  soon  became  apparent  that  this  was  as  un- 
just a  standard  as  the  differentiation  of  kinds  of  work. 
Some  dawdled  away  their  hours  of  labour,  whilst 
others  wore  out  their  energies  and  shortened  their 
lives  at  their  toil.  For  a  time  they  discussed  a  true 
and  scientific  standard  of  measurement,  A  few  of  the 
thinkers  saw  that  the  only  possible  approach  to  it 
would  be  to  gauge  the  amount  of  tissue  used  up  in  the 
act  of  labour.  Some  scientists  thought  that  they  might 
discover  a  method  of  doing  this  ;  but  the  shadow  of  the 
old  difficulty  fell  over  them  again.  Tissues  differed  in 
delicacy  and  in  the  value  and  refinement  of  the  nutri- 
ment they  each  required.  How  could  they  weigh 
brain  tissue  against  muscular  tissue  ?  And  it  took 
geological  ages  to  make  an  infinitesimal  advance  in  the 
organisation  or  amount  of  the  one,  whilst  the  other 
would  palpably  change  in  a  few  days  or  weeks.  Here 
crept  in  another  of  the  prime  difficulties  in  measuring 
remuneration  or  punishment  —  the  contribution  of  an- 
cestry either  negative  or  positive.  The  whole  attempt 
was  felt  to  be  doctrinaire  and  impossible.  And  it  was 
only  those  who  argued  for  it  that  gave  any  prominence 


1 62  Riallaro 

to  the  only  true  and  fundamental  standard  of  wages  — 
payment  according  to  the  real  results,  that  is,  the  ad- 
vance secured  for  the  race,  or  for  humanity  at  large,  by 
the  act  of  labour. 

"  The  final  interpretation  of  their  maxim,  '  To  every 
man  according  to  his  works,'  was  '  To  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  hours  of  work.'  A  fixed  amount  of 
food  and  clothing  was  to  be  doled  out  to  each,  and 
every  citizen  was  to  work  so  many  hours  a  day,  what- 
ever might  be  the  nature  of  the  employment. 

"  When  this  was  secured,  the  amount  produced  for 
the  state  and  by  the  connnunity  grew  less  and  less,  till 
it  became  utterly  inadequate  for  anything  but  the 
barest  subsistence  in  rags.  One  by  one  the  citizens 
fell  into  the  feeblest  way  of  filling  up  the  required  tale 
of  hours  ;  and  at  last  nature  had  to  produce  unaided 
what  was  necessary  for  life.  All  but  the  artists  were 
idler  during  the  supposed  hours  of  work  than  during 
the  hours  of  leisure.  And  the  cr}^  against  an  aristo- 
cracy of  art  and  culture  grew  to  be  the  daily  occupation 
of  the  unoccupied  national  tongue,  and  at  last  swelled 
into  a  revolution  that  destroN'ed  art  and  educated  em- 
ployments. The  whole  nation  became  an  aristocracy 
of  lazzaroni." 

I  had  become  deeply  interested  in  the  story  in  spite 
of  myself.  And,  without  noticing  the  distance  we  had 
travelled  through  the  groves  and  orchards,  I  found 
before  he  stopped  that  we  had  rounded  a  great  promon- 
tory and  come  suddenly  upon  a  large  settlement  ;  for 
crowds  moved  or  lay  about  the  shores  and  under  the 
fruit  trees.  I  could  see  no  temples  or  houses.  But 
before  long  we  came  upon  a  succession  of  holes  in  the 
earth  roofed  with  fallen  trees  and  withered  branches, 
or  fragments  dragged  from  the  ruins  of  a  former  temple 


Sneekape  163 

that  we  found  afterwards  in  the  forest.  The  race  was 
again  becoming  troglodytic  ;  and  with  my  fine,  spar- 
row-headed guide,  I  could  see  no  fate  before  it  but  a 
complete  though  gradual  return  to  aboriginal  barbar- 
ism. The  only  things  that  stemmed  the  downward 
current  were  two  :  the  retention  of  slave  labour  in  Kli- 
marol,  and  the  periodical  famines  that  cleared  out  the 
weaklings.  But  the  survivors  were  ever  becoming 
feebler  and  idler,  and  it  was  growing  more  and  more 
difficult  to  fill  up  the  gaps  in  the  ranks  of  the  slaves. 

As  we  returned,  the  critic  had  by  talking  and  ex- 
plaining and  slandering  so  worked  himself  into  full  con- 
fidence that  I  was  now  deeply  attached  to  him.  I  knew 
that  he  had  no  more  affection  or  loyalty  to  me  or  to 
any  other  human  being  than  a  cat.  But,  as  he  purred 
and  made  himself  comfortable  over  the  debris  of  his 
criticism  of  others,  he  gave  out  a  certain  amount  of 
magnetism  that  seemed  to  make  the  intercourse  close 
and  fervid.  It  is  the  substitute  in  the  amorous  for 
friendship  or  love,  and  can  be  turned  on  or  off  with 
almost  mechanical  precision.  The  only  safeguard 
against  it  amongst  its  victims  is  the  vanity  that  accom- 
panies it  and  makes  it  a  desultory  wanderer  in  its 
desire  for  further  conquests. 

He  assumed  that  I  was  now  a  devoted  admirer  of 
him  and  his  powers  ;  and  perhaps  he  put  down  my 
silence  to  moroseness  or  scant  acquaintance  with  the 
language.  At  any  rate  he  needed  no  key-word  or 
question  to  start  him  on  a  new  track.  He  had  in  fact 
now  come  to  the  subject  for  which  he  had  been  all 
along  preparing  the  way  ;  and  it  was  anuising  to  see 
the  ambushes  and  underground  works  by  which  he  at- 
tacked it.  Long  before  his  mines  reached  the  ramparts 
of  the  subject  I  saw  his  aim.     He  evidently  knew  that 


i64  Riallaro 

I  was  the  owner  of  the  new  marine  monster  that  had 
appeared  in  the  waters  of  the  archipelago,  and  he  was 
anxious  to  secure  my  help  for  a  great  seraglio  raid  that 
he  had  planned  for  the  repopulation  of  his  island  — 
which  he  let  me  indirectly  know  was  called  Figlefia,  or 
the  island  of  love.  It  was  their  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
humanity  that  had  thinned  their  numbers,  and  a  noble 
race  would  soon  vanish  unless  some  means  were  devised 
for  introducing  new  blood.  It  had  a  great  mission  in 
the  world  :  to  leaven  mankind  with  mutual  affection 
and  a  lofty  ideal  of  human  rapture.  Only  b}'  such  a 
stock,  inoculated  with  the  nobleness  of  passion,  could 
the  world  be  turned  from  its  evil  ways.  Preaching 
could  not  do  it  ;  propagandism  was  barren  of  perman- 
ent effect;  absorption  b}' conquest  was  a  chimera.  The 
only  way  to  sav^e  the  world  was  b}-  stocking  it  with 
new  blood.  This  was  taking  advantage  of  the  path  of 
nature.  She  worked  b}'  generation  and  crossing  of 
breeds  in  order  to  get  at  the  hardier  race  that  w'ould 
withstand  the  new  conditions  of  new  times.  Figlefia 
was  a  great  experimental  nursery.  Scions  were  intro- 
duced from  all  the  races  and  stocks  of  the  world  and 
grafted  on  the  Figlefian  race.  The  finest  women  that 
could  be  found  were  brought  to  the  island,  experi- 
ments were  made,  and  the  finest  results  were  carefully 
preserved  and  nurtured  to  plant  out  in  other  regions 
of  the  earth.  They  were  trained  in  the  noblest  doc- 
trines of  love  and  sent  forth  to  propagate  them  through 
the  nations  and  to  introduce  amongst  them  a  newer 
and  better  breed  that  might  make  the  race  of  man  ad- 
vance at  an  ever  accelerated  rate.  The  Figlefians  had 
struck  on  the  only  true  method  of  improving  mankind 
and  of  covering  the  planet  with  the  finest  human  stock 
it  could  support  ;    and  perhaps  in  some  future  age, 


Sneekape  165 

when  they  had  renovated  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
they  would  send  out  new  breeds  to  the  other  planets 
and  systems.  It  was  indeed  the  noblest  scheme  that 
this  orb  had  ever  experienced. 

Meantime  their  efforts  for  the  good  of  the  species  had 
stinted  their  numbers,  and  new  grafts  were  needed  for 
their  experiments  in  cross-breeding.  The  nursery  of 
mankind  needed  replenishing.  It  was  useless  intro- 
ducing sires,  for  the  Figlefians  were  the  finest  on 
the  globe.  All  that  was  needed  was  new  dams  that 
the  great  experimental  method  for  the  conversion  of 
the  world  might  proceed.  There  was  no  religion  like 
that  of  the  improvement  of  the  human  race  ;  and  no 
such  improvement  could  there  be  as  by  the  Figlefian 
scheme  of  cross-breeding  and  defertilising  the  fail- 
ures. Did  not  my  heart  burn  within  me  as  I  lis- 
tened to  the  mighty  creed  ?  Did  not  I  feel  that  the 
world,  if  not  the  universe,  was  getting  reborn  ?  Did 
I  not  desire  to  join  in  the  great  experimental  method 
of  progress  ? 

I  felt  that  he  was  coming  close  to  his  chief  object,  for 
he  blinked  his  bead}'  eyes  and  wagged  his  sage  little 
head  and  looked  unutterable  things  at  me  ;  he  tried  his 
strongest  hypnotism  on  me  and  would  hedge  me  round 
with  him  as  the  two  select  of  the  world  ;  he  shot  his 
most  magnetic  influence  into  his  words  ;  he  was  bent 
on  finally  and  completely  chaining  me  to  him  by  his 
fascinations.  The  upshot  of  it  was  that  I  would  be 
serving  the  whole  human  race  if  I  should  lend  him  my 
wind-compelling  or  wind-defying  ship  to  run  half  a 
dozen  voyages  through  the  islands  in  order  to  recruit  the 
great  nurser}-  of  mankind.  He  had  the  women  selected 
and  persuaded  to  leave  with  him  if  only  he  had  the 
rapid  means  of  conveying  them.     He  had  his  own  ship 


1 66  Riallaro 

lying  oflF  the  coast  of  Tirralaria  awaiting  his  orders  ; 
but  it  was  slow  and  wind-obeying,  and  it  might  be 
years  before  he  restocked  Figlefia  by  her  means. 

I  professed  that  I  did  not  know  where  the  Daydreain 
was  ;  I  had  come  in  Garrulesi's  falla,  and  whether  she 
would  follow  or  not  I  could  not  tell  ;  but  if  she  did  I 
might  be  able  to  accommodate  him  for  a  voyage  or 
two.  I  was  not  deeply  impressed  with  his  scheme,  for 
the  sufficient  reason  that  I  should  be  sorry  to  propagate 
the  great  Figlefian  species,  if  this  were  a  specimen 
of  the  stud.  The  world  would  soon  be  full  of  a  race  of 
feline  hypocrites  if  he  and  his  like  were  to  repopulate 
it.  And,  though  I  had  been  cornered  by  the  courtesies 
of  the  situation  into  promising  my  yacht,  I  prayed  that 
she  might  keep  far  out  of  his  reach. 

He  managed  to  close  the  negotiations  just  as  we  got 
back  to  the  temple  of  the  advisers  of  the  people.  The 
bulk  of  the  food  that  had  been  run  down  by  the  slaves 
into  one  corner  of  it  was  gone  ;  but  Garrulesi  had  hid- 
den a  portion  for  me,  and  one  of  the  inamoratas  of  the 
Figlefian  sparrow  had  done  the  same  for  him.  So  we 
fared  not  ill.  Our  share  consisted  of  fruits  that  were 
not  unpalatable  and  of  the  flesh  of  some  wild  animal 
that  abounded  on  the  slopes  of  Klimarol.  I  cooked 
and  ate  and  was  satisfied. 

I  left  my  amorous  instructor  absorbed  in  his  old 
occupation  amongst  the  women,  and  stepped  out  again 
into  the  sunshine.  I  found  Garrulesi  waiting  for  me  on 
the  platform  that  overlooked  the  ocean.  He  gazed  at 
me  sadly  as  if  at  a  lost  sinner.  He  thought  me  wholly 
giv^en  over  to  the  popinja}'. 

A  few  words  put  him  into  his  most  rhetorical  humour. 
He  understood  my  estimate  of  the  man  b)'  the  very  tone 
of  my  answers  to  his  first  remarks.     So  he  made  no 


Sneekape  167 

attack  on  the  guest  of  his  temple.  With  all  his  loose- 
jointed  character  and  moralit}-,  he  would  not  take  ad- 
vantage of  my  sympathy  to  slander  one  whom  I  plainly 
despised.  He  was  too  good-natured  to  trouble  himself 
much  about  the  designs  or  the  petty  gallantries  of  the 
creature.  He  merely  scorned  the  unmanliness  of  this 
trifler  with  women,  and  fought  shy  of  even  speaking 
of  him,  as  he  would  of  a  dunghill.  In  conversation  with 
others  of  his  countrymen  who  knew  the  Aleofanian 
tongue  I  found  out  what  good  cause  he  and  his  whole 
nation  had  to  hate  and  persecute  this  Sneekape,  as, 
they  told  me  he  was  called.  He  was  nothing  but  a 
pander  for  his  island.  The  Figlefians  were  voluptua- 
ries, and  had  been  so  for  untold  generations.  They  still 
retained  something  of  the  boldness  that  enabled  them  to 
subdue  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  their  island  ;  and 
w'ith  this  they  enslaved  them  and  kidnapped  others 
from  other  portions  of  the  archipelago.  The  hard  fare, 
the  brutal  treatment,  the  stoical  life  of  toil  that  these 
had  to  bear  kept  up  their  numbers  and  gave,  in  what 
the)^  produced,  great  luxury  to  their  masters.  But  the 
day  was  not  far  off  when  the  slaves,  hardened  and  em- 
boldened by  their  mode  of  existence,  would  throw  off 
the  yoke  of  the  sybarites  and  resume  their  long-lost 
freedom.  A  few  of  the  aristocratic  Figlefians  had,  like 
Sneekape,  retained  some  of  the  energy  and  courage  of 
their  forefathers,  the  subjugators  of  the  island,  and 
either  managed  the  work  of  the  slaves  by  means  of  the 
lash  or  sailed  out  in  search  of  new  occupants  of  the 
harems.  The  rest  were  the  vilest  of  debauchees, 
spending  most  of  their  time  in  cheating  their  neigh- 
bours out  of  the  loyalt}'  of  their  wives.  And  the  whole 
race  was  ulcerous  with  disease,  puny,  though  tall  in 
frame,  and  periodically  on  the  verge  of  madness.     Its 


1 68  Riallaro 

stamina  was  exhausted  by  concupiscence  and  debauch- 
ery. The  skull  was  of  the  smallest,  and  most  of  its 
capacity  lay  in  the  back  of  it  ;  it  was  like  a  cocoanut 
trying  to  force  its  way  into  a  lemon.  And  the  hair 
that  covered  it,  as  a  rule,  was  of  a  dirt}^  yellow  merging 
into  red. 

The}'  were  not  unhandsome,  these  Figlefians,  with 
all  their  corrupt  blood  and  the  gleam  of  incipient  mad- 
ness in  their  eyes,  for  most  of  them  had  come  from 
some  of  the  finest  women  who  could  be  entrapped  by 
their  emissaries  throughout  the  archipelago.  But  they 
knew  it  so  well  that  they  were  intoxicated  with  vanit}'; 
the}'  bore  themselves  like  coquettes,  smirking  and 
capering  and  continually  expectant  of  adoration. 
They  kept,  most  of  them,  huge  seraglios  to  which 
they  were  ever  adding.  Yet  their  greatest  rapture  was 
to  get  into  a  neighbour's,  and  especially  a  friend's 
enclosure  and  decoy  his  most  faithful  or  most  beautiful 
concubine.  Six  days  out  of  seven  were  occupied  in 
maturing  or  revenging  some  such  intrigue.  They  had 
a  code  of  honour  based  upon  this  feature  of  their  life, 
and  they  counted  the  honours  of  their  pedigree  by  the 
number  of  handsome  women  their  ancestors  and  they 
had  been  able  to  cajole  ;  and  all  the  women  they  fa.s- 
cinated  were,  in  the  annals  of  their  families,  handsome. 
The  other  .side  of  their  roll  of  honour  was  the  number 
of  men  they  had  slain  in  these  amorous  adventures. 
To  add  a  sharp  savour  to  this  their  chief  employment 
and  amusement,  they  upheld  monogamy  to  be  the  true 
and  divine  form  of  the  relations  of  the  sexes  ;  and  their 
preachers  almost  daily  prelected  to  them  on  the  noble- 
ness of  purity  of  life.  Half  the  taste  of  their  erotic 
enterprises  would  vanish  if  they  were  allowed  to  follow 
them  up  without  check  or  secrecy.     Their  whole  polite 


Sneekape  169 

literature  would  fall  to  dust  at  a  stroke  if  either  poly- 
gamy or  libertinism  were  made  legal,  customary,  and 
religious.  A  legislator  who  passed  such  a  law  amongst 
them  and  accomplished  such  a  reform  would  obliterate 
all  the  traditional  wit  and  humour,  all  the  smart  stories 
they  had  to  tell,  all  the  gusto  of  their  grotesque  and 
often  lewd  art  ;  life  would  become  so  vapid  that  there 
would  occur  an  epidemic  of  suicide.  To  legalise  these 
irregular  unions  that  filled  their  seraglios  would  be  to 
annihilate  the  purpose  of  their  civilisation. 

In  some  islands  Sneekape  and  his  fellow-panders 
were  publicly  proclaimed  as  enemies  of  the  state,  and, 
if  at  any  time  they  were  discov^ered  there,  were  liable 
to  be  hunted  down  like  vermin.  In  Tirralaria  their 
offence  was  not  felt  so  deeply.  For  the  leisurely, 
pleasure-loving  life  precipitated  a  larger  proportion 
of  female  children  than  of  males.  The  freedom  of 
intercourse  between  the  sexes  removed  all  special 
premiums  on  the  passion  ;  there  could  be  nothing 
illicit  in  love  ;  there  was  no  bond  and  no  law  to  dare 
or  break.  And  thus  they  held  there  was  nothing  of 
intoxication  in  amorous  intercourse;  there  was  no  more 
stimulus  to  it  than  there  was  to  eating  ;  it  had  be- 
come commonplace  ;  and  lasciviousness  was  as  rare  as 
gluttony,  if  not  as  miserliness  in  a  state  that  had  no 
money.  As  a  rule,  though  there  were  no  bonds,  no 
state  authorisations  of  permanenc}'  in  the  unions,  they 
were  more  constant  than  in  a  monogamous  community; 
and  as  there  was  in  most  years  plenty  of  food  to  be  got 
for  nothing  and  parents  could  at  their  option  retain 
their  children  or  hand  them  over  to  the  temple  of  female 
advisers,  there  was  no  check  on  the  growth  of  the 
population.  They  were  not  sorry  then  that  some  of 
the  women  should  elope  with  the  Figlefian  emissaries  ; 


I70  Riallaro 

in  fact  it  relieved  the  drain  on  the  supply  of  food  and 
left  fewer  to  suffer  from  any  famine  that  might  occur. 
There  was  indeed  no  compulsion  on  their  women  any 
more  than  on  their  men  to  stay  on  the  island.  And 
those  who  did  follow  Sneekape  or  any  other  of  his 
libertines  went  with  their  eyes  open  ;  they  now  knew 
the  capricious  fate  of  a  Figlefian  seraglio.  It  was  only 
the  young  fools  amongst  them  that  now  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  decoyed.  As  a  rule,  they  were  handsome 
women  who  were  flabby  from  adulation,  and  most  of 
them  had  only  the  hectic  beauty  of  weakness  and  ill- 
health  ;  and  these  soon  died  off  amid  the  rigours  of 
Figlefian  prostitution.  Few  ever  returned  from  their 
escapade. 

It  was  clear  that  thej^  winked  at  Sneekape's  mission, 
and  rendered  it  as  easy  as  possible,  whilst  he  hood- 
winked himself  into  the  belief  that  it  was  his  personal 
attractions  that  removed  its  difficulty.  The  high  value 
that  he  placed  on  his  face  and  figure,  and  especially  on 
the  hypnotism  of  his  eyes  and  tongue,  laid  him  open  to 
any  trap  that  an  astute  schemer  would  set  for  him  ;  his 
vanity  rendered  him  as  foolish  as  a  coot,  whilst  it  at 
the  same  time  made  him  think  that  he  was  a  heaven- 
born  diplomat  and  intriguer.  For  the  morbid  natures 
of  the  sickly  and  weak-willed  he  had  manifest  attrac- 
tions ;  he  could  practically  mesmerise  these  feeble- 
minded beauties  and  make  them  follow  him  wherever 
he  would,  and  he  prided  himself  on  these  conquests 
with  bantam-like  gestures  and  crow.  The  strong- 
willed  women  were  too  wholesome  in  mind  and  too 
astute  to  be  influenced  by  his  flatteries  or  his  hypnotis- 
ing glances.  They  entertained  a  certain  amused  scorn 
of  his  vanity,  his  amorous  advances,  and  his  adulation. 

During  the  day  Garrulesi  and  his  friends  showed  me 


Sneekape  171 

great  attention  and  descanted  on  the  glories  of  their 
state.  Whilst  other  communities  had  elevated  the 
means  towards  happiness  into  an  end  the}-  were  already 
at  the  goal  ;  they  did  not  trouble  themselves  about  the 
future,  but  enjoyed  the  present  ;  they  did  not  fidget 
364  days  that  they  might  rest  on  the  365th,  with  the 
chance  of  dying  before  it  came  ;  they  loved  the  bird  in 
the  hand  better  than  ten  thousand  in  the  bush.  The 
fools  of  the  world,  the  most  of  men,  chased  the  elusive 
to-morrow  or  wailed  the  vanished  yesterday,  till  to-day 
had  run  its  sands.  Between  two  phantom  worlds,  the 
one  dead,  the  other  to  be  born,  they  let  the  present  run, 
a  rosary  of  tears  or  prayers.  The  moment  was  the 
only  capital  that  men  could  be  sure  of  ;  what  folly  to 
hide  it  in  a  stocking  for  that  which  may  never  be,  to 
lose  the  reality  in  grasping  at  the  shadow  !  The  Tir- 
ralarians  had  based  their  whole  life  and  civilisation  on 
the  maxim  that  neither  the  past  nor  the  future  is  theirs 
to  deal  in.  Time  is  but  the  flight  of  a  moment  be- 
tween two  midnights  ;  all  else  is  a  dream  ;  out  of  a 
dream  we  issue;  into  a  dream  we  vanish  ;  how  vain  to 
spend  our  only  sleepless  present  as  a  lethargic  past  or 
an  uncreated  future  ! 

And,  as  I  walked  about  with  them,  I  felt  that  there 
was  something  strikingly  ephemeral  in  their  existence. 
The  only  members  of  the  community  that  thought  of 
anything  but  the  immediate  hour  were  the  advisers  of 
the  people  ;  and  even  they  were  satisfied  with  but  the 
outlook  of  a  season  ;  they  tried  to  secure  nature  a 
chance  of  repairing  the  ravages  a  dislawed  people 
might  do  her  in  gratifying  their  appetites  with  her 
products  ;  they  saw  that  the  trees  and  bushes  were  not 
so  broken  down  or  pillaged  of  seed  that  they  could  not 
restore   their  vital  powers  ;    they   watched  over  the 


172  Riallaro 

recuperative  faculty  of  a  climate  that  though  subtropi- 
cal yet  needed  the  husbanding  of  the  trees  and  other 
growths. 

It  was  indeed  like  talking  with  children  from  a  cross 
between  the  barbaric  past  and  the  coming  millennium, 
as  I  encountered  and  conversed  with  these  ragged 
philosophers.  In  the  opportunities  of  their  civilisation 
they  were  not  one  step  in  advance  of  the  savage  often 
thousand  years  ago  ;  in  their  mental  and  lingual  outfit 
they  were  the  equals  of  the  subtlest  and  most  advanced 
of  nations.  All  day  their  life  through,  they  sharpened 
their  wits  in  argument,  or  discussion,  or  dream.  They 
had  had  nothing  to  do  but  talk  for  centuries  ;  and  their 
power  of  rhetoric  or  argumentation  was  the  accumu- 
lated legacy  of  a  hundred  generations.  They  had  no 
books  or  art,  for  they  had  deliberately  destroyed  or 
abolished  the  professions  that  worked  in  them.  But 
they  had  almost  overcome  the  results  of  such  a  defect 
b)^  the  keenness  of  their  memory  and  the  potency  of 
their  imagination.  Though  the}^  professed  to  live  in 
the  moment,  their  minds  swept  through  all  time  and 
space.  Without  infinity  of  past  and  future,  of  stars 
above  and  beyond,  the  present  would  have  been  an 
intolerable  prison-house.  The  energy  that  was  no 
longer  used  in  muscle  and  framework  and  the  processes 
of  digestion  concentrated  in  the  brain.  The}'  counted 
it  no  blemish  on  the  perfection  of  idleness  to  dream  for 
ever  waking  dreams  or  keep  the  tongue  in  perpetual 
motion.  They  did  not  harass  themselv^es  with  imagin- 
ary cares  and  thus  waste  the  tissue  that  went  to  the 
enjoyment  of  complete  living.  If  disease  or  famine 
came,  why  then  they  died  and  there  vv^as  an  end  of  it. 
But  what  could  it  profit  them  to  anticipate  such  evils  ? 
They  could  not  by  thinking  and  acting  and  forerunning 


Sneekape  173 

sorrow  and  harassment  add  a  moment  to  their  3'ears  or 
postpone  the  arrival  of  the  inevitable  end. 

The}^  acknowledge  that  records  might  have  aided 
them  in  enhancing  the  happiness  they  had,  but  writing 
them  was  too  much  like  the  old  chase  of  the  mirage, 
the  search  for  happiness.  Who  could  be  expected  to 
postpone  the  enjoyment  of  a  brilliant  fancy  or  noble 
image  for  the  purpose  of  giving  it  written  expression  ? 
If  they  had  had  from  the  nervous  energy  of  their  old 
and  futile  civilisation  some  automatic  means  of  having 
their  words  or  thoughts  recorded,  then  would  they  now 
have  books  enough  to  let  a  generation  amuse  and  in- 
struct those  that  followed.  But,  before  many  genera- 
tions had  gone,  books  would  become  a  burden  to  the 
race  ;  the  necessity  of  having  to  read  them  and  know 
them  would  sit  like  a  nightmare  upon  every  man  who 
wished  to  be  up  to  his  age.  Libraries  crush  the  souls 
of  men  till  they  become  all  eyes  and  comment  on  the 
past  ;  their  heads  are  twisted  on  their  necks  till  they 
can  see  onl}^  behind.  The  worst  books  contaminate 
the  future  like  a  foul  stream.  The  best  books  become 
gods  that  tyrannise  over  the  ages  to  come  and  bind  the 
human  spirit  in  irrefragable  chains  of  minute  devotion. 
They  preserve  the  past  only  to  be  a  fetish  and  slave- 
driver  of  souls.  Through  them  the  generations  can  lay 
dead  fingers  upon  the  hearts  of  men  and  frighten  cour- 
age out  with  their  stony  stare  and  grasp.  The  noblest 
of  them  when  deified  by  time  grow  an  evil  dream. 
Books,  they  found,  had  become  the  high-priests  of  the 
human  spirit,  and  ultimately  claimed  communion  with 
omniscience.  Why  should  they,  when  they  had  abol- 
ished all  privilege  in  earth  and  heaven,  as  far  as  they 
were  concerned,  leave  a  privileged  race  of  human  crea- 
tions that  would  episcopate  over  every  nascent  thought 


1 74  Riallaro 

or  imagination  or  element  of  faith  ?  The  past  was  too 
much  with  them  even  as  it  was.  Through  heredity  it 
fettered  and  lamed  the  footsteps  of  mankind.  What 
we  have  done,  still  more  what  our  ancestors  have  done, 
laj's  mortmain  on  what  we  do  or  have  still  to  do.  And 
books  give  the  grip  of  a  vice  to  this  dead  hand  of  the 
past.  The  Tirralarians  grew  weary  of  perpetuating 
outworn  elements,  and  made  a  bonfire  of  their  libraries. 
Theirs  was  thoroughgoing  socialism  that  would  not 
permit  inequality  of  voice  and  influence  even  among 
the  dead.  Every  man  had  his  chance  of  moulding  the 
future  through  his  children  and  friends.  Heredity 
gave  him  as  strong  a  power  of  flight  through  the  spaces 
of  time  and  over  the  barriers  of  death  as  socialism  or 
nature  could  allow.  In  all  nations  and  races  it  needed 
far  more  strength  to  fight  the  dead  past  and  throw  off 
its  yoke  than  to  climb  up  the  steep  of  progress.  Tra- 
dition aiding  heredity  gave  it  almost  omnipotence. 
Books,  completing  the  yoke,  gave  such  organisation 
and  order  and  permanence  to  the  power  that  it  had  no 
limit,  and  the  young  generations  and  young  talents 
and  thoughts  were  hopeless  in  the  struggle.  Through 
them  tradition  became  like  the  snake-haired  head  of 
fable  that  turned  all  it  stared  at  into  stone;  orally  it  is 
liquid  or  at  least  malleable,  if  not  plastic;  but  in  record 
it  is  the  petrifaction  of  the  past.  Half  of  every  life  is 
a  struggle  with  this  gorgon,  this  sphinx,  even  when  it 
has  only  the  diaphanous  texture  of  myth  ;  but  when 
it  gathers  to  it  the  worship  of  past  ages,  it  has  the 
mystic  fascination  of  destiny  in  its  eyes,  and  there  is  no 
evading  it  in  our  threescore  years  and  ten.  We  are 
born  with  the  tentacles  of  this  octopus  round  us,  and 
with  our  growth  they  grow  ;  and  if  they  have  in  them 
the  strength  of  past  ages  that  literature  gives,  there  is 


Sneekape  175 

no  spirit,  however  herculean,  but  must  succumb  to 
them  ;  for  every  snaky  arm  that  we  unwind  from  our 
souls,  a  myriad  retwine  themselves  about  us.  It  is  an 
unequal  combat,  this  of  the  human  present  with  its 
past ;  we  arm  the  latter  with  weapons  of  such  might, 
we  are  such  traitors  to  our  own  happiness  and  our  own 
future.  The  history  of  civilisation  in  any  nation  is  but 
a  record  of  the  struggle  of  man  to  disentangle  the  coils 
of  his  past  from  his  soul  ;  and  what  makes  it  so  tragic 
is  that  in  his  folly  he  is  ever  feeding  the  monster  with 
his  own  vitals,  his  devotion,  worship,  reverence.  Oh, 
the  cruel  laceration  of  his  heart  in  times  of  revolution, 
when  he  rises  to  superhuman  passion  and  resolves  that 
he  will  be  rid  of  the  snaky  coils  !  But,  as  the  great 
mood  begins  to  burn  low,  he  finds  that  the  hydra  has 
only  crept  down  on  him  with  renewed  life.  To  enjoy 
the  present  we  must  not  multiply  the  terrors  of  the 
past  by  eternalising  them,  or  brood  over  the  dangers  of 
the  future  till  they  become  nightmares. 

The  rest  of  my  day  in  Tirralaria  had  the  sharp  savour 
of  epigram  in  it;  so  mean  were  the  externals  of  life,  so 
easy  and  opulent  the  thought  and  phraseology.  Low 
living  and  high  thinking  was  the  rule  amongst  those 
whom  I  came  to  know.  But  I  had  the  suspicion  that 
these  were  but  the  floating  remains  of  a  great  intel- 
lectual past  come  down  the  stream  of  heredity,  for  I 
saw  gleam  out  of  the  eyes  of  most  that  I  did  not  speak 
to  the  spirit  of  a  wolf  or  of  a  sloth.  Envy,  malice, 
hatred,  the  passionate  soul  of  Cain,  had  not  vanished 
with  the  destruction  of  property,  class,  profession, 
literature,  art.  Low  living  without  any  thinking  was 
the  rule  of  the  majority  perforce  ;  and  it  was  these 
embruted  elements  of  the  nation  that  usually  survived 
a  famine  or  plague.     I  could  see  savagery  loom  at  no 


176  Riallaro 

distant  date  on  the  horizon  of  this  people,  for  it  had 
no  means  of  conserving  its  higher  elements  or  natures. 
High  thinking  cannot  live  in  the  st}'  of  Epicurus  ; 
even  in  the  higher  natures  it  must  drown  in  the  deluge 
of  talk. 

I  slung  my  mat  with  these  melancholy  thoughts 
dominating  my  mind  and  with  the  resolve  to  inv^esti- 
gate  the  civilisation  of  the  island  more  minutely  before 
I  left  it. 

I  could  not  have  slept  long  when  a  movement  of  my 
hammock  awoke  me  to  the  hoarse  chaos  of  a  hundred 
nasal  trumpets.  I  sat  up  in  consternation,  and  through 
the  darkness  I  could  discern  the  figure  of  ni}'  Figlefian 
critic  erect  beside  me.  He  waited  a  few  seconds  to  let 
me  master  the  situation,  and  then  whispered  in  my  ear  : 
"  It  is  time  to  set  out  if  we  wish  to  see  Klimarol."  I 
remembered  our  tacit  agreement,  and  rose  after  don- 
ning my  rags.  On  getting  into  the  starlight  my  wits 
returned  to  me,  and  I  began  to  think  how  dangerous 
was  the  enterprise,  especially  with  such  an  untrust- 
worthy guide.  I  pleaded  that  I  had  forgotten  some- 
thing, and,  picking  up  a  bright  shell  that  gleamed 
upon  the  earth,  I  returned  to  ni)-  mat  and  wrote  upon 
it,  as  well  as  the  darkness  would  allow,  a  brief  message 
in  English  for  my  men,  telling  them  to  beware  of 
Figlefia,  although  they  might  find  me  there  should  I 
have  left  Tirralaria  ;  they  should  take  a  guide  and  fol- 
low me  with  caution.  On  its  outer  surface  I  .scratched 
a  word  or  two  in  Aleofanian  to  Garrulesi. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


THE   MIDNIGHT   ASCENT   AND    FLIGHT 


THE  darkness  at  first  set  the  whole  sense  of  touch 
on  the  alert  ;  it  seemed  black  and  solid  as  a 
prison  wall.  But  the  e5^es  soon  focussed  the  sparse 
rays  of  starlight  and  massed  objects  into  clots  of  night. 
The  shadow  of  dreams  still  hung  about  my  senses,  as 
if  sleep  had  not  wholly  fled.  The  trees  and  rocks  we 
passed  seemed  rather  to  move  past  me.  I  was  weary 
and  languid,  and  ever}'  object  and  motion  took  feverish 
proportions.  It  was  a  world  as  strange  and  gruesome 
as  if  I  had  followed  Dante  into  hell. 

On  I  stumbled  after  my  guide.  I  scarcely  knew  how 
or  whither  we  went,  nor  cared  I  much.  It  was  a  life 
drugged  with  night  that  I  was  living.  Between  thick 
walls  of  darkness  faintl}-  parted  overhead  by  a  dim  line 
of  starshot  grey  we  filed  ;  ghosts  we  might  have  been 
but  for  the  clang  of  stones  beneath  our  feet,  or  the 
screech  of  some  night-bird  startled  from  his  nest. 
There  was  little  underlife  in  these  islands  to  fear  lurk- 
ing in  the  shadows  or  thickets  ;  they  had  too  recently 
purged  themselves  of  monstrous  or  snaky  traces  of  the 
earlier  features  of  the  world  in  the  all-cleansing  bosom 
of  the  ocean.  Only  winged  existence  or  human  with 
its  trans-elemental  powers  had  found  its  way  into  these 

12 


178  Riallaro 

secluded  survivals  of  an  ancient  world  baptised  and 
rebaptised  in  the  obliterative  sea. 

Thoughts  like  these  chased  from  sense  to  sense  the 
dreamy  fears  of  shapes  and  noises  that  formed  and 
vanished  in  the  night.  Monsters  crept  back  and  forth 
out  of  the  caverns  of  the  blackness.  Low  yells  and 
shrieks  and  groans  just  eluded  the  power  of  hearing  ; 
echoes  of  them  faintly  haunted  the  silences.  Dim 
foreshadowings  of  horrors  about  to  be  born  struck  my 
senses  with  ob.scene  wing  ;  ghostly  adumbrations  of 
forms  I  had  seen  in  dreams  floated  round  me.  Phan- 
toms of  the  dead  and  of  the  unborn  filled  the  hollows 
of  my  brain.  I  had  no  safety  but  in  madly  rushing  on 
in  the  footsteps  of  my  guide. 

He  doubtless  heard  the  ringing  echo  of  ni}'  advance, 
for  he  never  turned  to  look,  athirst  though  I  was  for  a 
human  word  or  the  glance  of  an  eye.  He  seemed  to 
know  ever\' step  of  the  labyrinthian  path.  Upwards  did 
it  climb  at  last  ;  I  grew  giddy  as  it  snaked  and  twisted 
and  spiralled  athwart  the  face  of  former  landslips, 
along  the  edge  of  cliffs,  beneath  it  Avernian  gloom 
yawning,  up  the  rugged  bed  of  hissing  streams,  across 
the  bouldered  blackness  of  still  pools,  or  the  shifting 
gleam  of  a  hoarse  torrent,  ever  up  with  forests  here 
and  there  or  great  walls  of  rock  shouldering  the  star- 
light from  them. 

Sneekape  never  rested  or  stayed  ;  ahead  of  me  he 
darkened  or  vanished  like  a  spirit  of  the  night.  My 
imaginarj'  fears  gave  me  speed  and  endurance  and  a 
lightning-swift  instinct  to  shun  real  dangers.  By  day 
I  should  have  been  drunk  with  the  dizz}^  steeps  or 
black-hearted  chasms  we  skirted. 

Hours  must  have  passed  in  this  terror-goaded  ascent, 
when  suddenly  we  stood  on  a  broad   platform  that 


The  Midnight  Ascent  and  FHght     1 79 

overhung  the  sea.  Far  below  us  as  it  pulsed  I  could 
see  the  phosphoric  shimmer  of  its  discontent.  In  the 
shadow  of  a  clump  of  trees  we  sat  down  to  rest  on  a 
fallen  giant  of  the  woods.  I  was  conscious  of  human 
life  upon  the  level  ;  the  air  was  restless  with  sounds 
and  motion  it  but  half  absorbed  ;  and,  when  the  eyes 
grew  accustomed  to  the  half-light  of  the  stars  hoarded 
between  sea  and  sky,  they  discerned  dark  masses  shift 
and  vanish  against  the  stellar  distance. 

We  had  our  backs  to  the  cone  of  Klimarol,  and  by 
degrees  I  came  to  feel  that  there  was  other  light  in  the 
air  than  that  of  the  sky  or  sea.  I  looked  up  and  saw 
the  stars  blotted  out  above  the  peak  and  in  their  place 
a  lurid  gleam  that  threw  the  unearthly  glimmer,  which 
I  had  been  conscious  of  for  some  time,  into  the  inter- 
jacent night.  And  up  the  slope  between  the  broad 
ledge  we  sat  on  and  the  cloud  reflector,  there  rushed 
like  a  funeral  car  a  gloomy  mass  lit  with  the  murky 
wind-sucked  flame  of  a  torch.  I  saw  it  reach  the  lip 
of  the  broken  cone  and  disappear.  This  was  the  noc- 
turnal incineration  of  Tirralarian  debris  and  dead. 

Sneekape  gave  a  long,  low,  strident  note  thrice  re- 
peated, different  only  in  the  interval  between  the 
sounds  from  a  night-bird's  cry  I  had  heard.  Again  ha 
gave  it.  And  before  long  I  could  hear  a  step  rustle  in 
the  fallen  leaves  and  dead  herbage  ;  a  short  grace  note 
as  of  another  bird,  and  my  companion  darted  forward 
under  the  shadow.  A  moment's  peering  into  the  dark- 
ness, and  I  saw  a  human  figure,  half-naked,  but  with 
head  enveloped  in  some  helmet  that  looked  like  a 
diver's.  The  two  disappeared  together  through  the 
gloom-clustered  foliage.  And  I  had  time  to  look  aloft 
at  the  gleaming  slopes  of  the  great  cone,  scarred  with 
dark  zones  and  the  track  of  the  cinerative  sleds.     Fire 


t8o  Riallaro 

and  frost  were  the  artists  that  carved  this  wonder  of 
sheen  and  gloom.  And  even  as  I  gazed  the  lustre  of 
the  overhanging  pall  flashed,  and  a  light  dust  fell  upon 
my  hands  and  face.  Another  dark  encaustic  lay  along 
the  slope  of  the  argent  cone.  The  cloud  that  canopied 
the  peak  was  rent  with  fulminant  volley  and  a  thin  veil 
suffused  the  landscape  for  a  moment  ;  again  the  stars 
etched  the  darkness  with  their  keen  light,  and  the 
upper  slopes  of  Klimarol  were  coagulate  gloom.  Its 
pall  rose  after  a  time  and  revealed  the  alabaster  of  the 
cone  sloping  to  the  stars  unblemished.  The  tesselation 
and  veining  of  the  snow  had  vanished  into  spotless 
marble. 

My  companion  returned,  and,  to  overcome  my  fear 
of  the  volcanic  showers,  he  told  me  that  never  was 
there  so  good  an  opportunity  of  seeing  behind  the 
scenes.  The  overseers  had  taken  refuge  in  some  caves 
lower  down  the  slopes;  the  outburst  had  alarmed  them, 
and  the  slaves  had  encouraged  their  fears,  though  they 
knew  from  long  experience  of  the  mountain  that  such 
an  ejection  relieved  the  tension  of  its  heart,  and  none 
would  follow  for  at  least  twenty-four  hours.  Thus 
they  got  rid  of  their  repulsive  work  and  the  lash  for  a 
few  brief  breathing-spaces.  He  was  in  league  with 
them  and  could  get  them  to  throw  off  the  j'oke  at  any 
time.  They  would  lay  down  their  lives  for  him  ;  he 
alone  gave  them  a  consolatory  future. 

I  rose  and  followed  him,  and  our  feet  were  clogged 
with  the  fresh  mud  of  the  mingled  ash  dust  and  rain. 
A  few  moments  more  and  we  were  seated  in  a  sled  full 
of  fallen  branches  and  leaves  and  shooting  over  the 
syow  at  great  speed,  a  pine  torch  flaring  at  our  rear 
and  bronzing  the  unsmirched  gleam  on  either  side  of 
our  track.     To  look  down  into  the  snow-lit  gloom  of 


The  Midnight  Ascent  and  Flight     i8i 

the  ab5'ss  we  were  deepening  every  moment  appalled 
me.  I  crept  to  the  front  of  the  car  and  found  a  great 
chain  attached  that  cut  bj^  the  fire  of  its  swiftness  a 
black  line  through  the  pallor  of  the  slope.  Half-way 
up  there  shot  out  of  the  gloom  and  into  it  again  a  sled 
like  our  own  laden  to  the  lip  and  guided  by  half-naked 
cresset-headed  slaves  ;  and  behind  it  in  the  snow-gleam 
I  could  trace  a  dark  line  parallel  to  that  made  by  our 
chain. 

Almost  before  I  could  withdraw  my  thoughts  from 
the  new  subject,  we  had  surmounted  the  edge  of  the 
mountain  cup  and  in  a  few  minutes  were  landed  on  the 
sulphurous  platform  that  fringed  it  within.  A  foul 
stench  was  in  our  nostrils  that  gave  Avernian  shapings 
to  my  inward  fears.  Down  into  the  pit  of  everlasting 
fire  I  seemed  to  look  ;  a  breath  of  wind  fitfully  lifted 
the  turban  of  steam  and  smoke  that  hid  the  central 
furnace,  and  I  could  catch  suggestive  glimpses  of  a 
molten  lake  clogged  with  ever-thickening  ever-cracking 
congelation  of  liquid  rock.  Only  for  a  moment,  and 
then  all  was  grey  steam  again  lit  from  within  with  fire 
that  seemed  to  threaten  conflagration. 

It  was  long  before  my  eyes  could  find  their  way  amid 
the  mingled  gloom  and  flash  and  twilight.  But  at  last 
I  could  discern  inside  the  lips  of  the  fierj^  mouth  the 
desolation  of  a  great  cit}-.  The  Cyclopean  blocks  of 
lava  that  made  its  walls  were  heaved  and  split  as  if 
they  had  been  the  missiles  of  giants.  Yet  amid  their 
rupture  and  dissilience  and  beneath  the  sulphurous 
spume  that  streaked  and  sicklied  their  sombre  outlines 
with  lichened  yellow,  I  could  discern  the  features  of 
the  magnificent  past.  Here  and  there  the  fragments 
of  great  domes  still  .stood  propped  by  their  own  ruins 
or  soldered  by  new  streams  of  molten  rock.     Mighty 


1 82  Riallaro 

walls  rose  up  above  the  now  solid  torrents  of  lava  that 
had  flowed  along  their  base.  It  was  the  strangest 
sight  ;  vast  sculptured  figures  standing  to  their  necks 
in  new  rock,  like  mammoths  from  their  graves  of 
century-vanishing  ice.  Mythic  animals  or  monsters 
from  a  long-buried  past,  some  w'ith  half-human  faces, 
looked  out  untroubled  from  their  bed  of  stone  upon  the 
seething  hell  beneath  them,  whence  had  issued  sea  on 
sea  of  terrene  fire  to  curd  in  massy  base  around  their 
feet.  Tall  columns  lay  imbedded  in  sulphurous  ash  ; 
others  stood  broken  and  vitrified  by  the  dash  of  some 
fiery  billow.  Statues  rested  half  sunk  in  a  shallow 
inlet  of  once-molten  stone.  Great  temples  still  showed 
the  tracery  of  their  niullioned  windows  and  the  mar- 
vellous fretwork  of  their  walls  and  roof  beneath  the 
glassy  yellow  of  their  incrustation.  It  was  as  if  a  city 
of  noble  giants  had  been  crushed  into  fragments  and 
then  preserved  in  amber.  Even  beside  the  tremendous 
forces  of  this  mighty  vent  of  subterraneous  passion  the 
ruins  showed  immense. 

Amid  them  skulked  large-headed  human  figures  that 
with  their  oily  nakedness  gleamed  bronze  at  times  in 
the  palpitant  light  of  the  central  furnace.  But  for 
these  I  could  have  wished  to  explore  the  cyclopean 
fragments  of  a  great  civilisation  of  the  past.  But  I 
feared  the  iron-barred  eyes  that  flashed  so  savagely 
from  beneath  the  huge  visors.  I  knew  that  these 
headpieces  were  to  protect  the  e5'es  and  tender  parts 
of  the  slaves  from  the  fall  of  ashes  and  other  red-hot 
ejections  from  the  bowels  of  the  mountain.  Yet  in  the 
darkness  and  lurid  gleamings  they  showed  like  gnomes 
or  monsters  of  the  earth,  and  I  could  not  rid  my  mind 
of  shrinking. 

The  emotion  rose  into  terror  when  I  heard  sullen 


The  Midnight  Ascent  and  FHght     183 

cries  and  shrieks  rise  on  every  side  from  the  petrified 
fragments  of  the  past.  Over  the  rim  of  the  mount- 
ain cup  shot  another  of  their  funeral  sleds  filled  with 
figures  that  showed  sombre  against  the  heaven  beyond  ; 
and  in  the  hand  of  each  was  a  huge  thong  with  knotted 
end.  My  companion  started,  and  seizing  me  by  the 
elbow  pulled  me  in  under  the  shadow  of  a  tower  that 
still  rose  gigantic  out  of  the  new  rock.  I  could  see 
by  the  occasional  flash  from  the  upper  cloud  what 
consternation  had  taken  him.  For  a  time  he  could 
scarcely  command  breath  to  speak  - —  a  striking  thing 
in  this  superfine  master  of  language.  I  crouched  with 
him  for  a  few  minutes  in  the  darkness,  and  at  last  he 
hoarsely  whispered  in  my  ear,  "  It  is  the  overseers,  and 
we  shall  be  caught  !  " 

We  skulked  from  pillar  to  wall,  from  wall  to  buried 
figure,  ev'cr  in  the  shadow,  till  we  had  reached  a  deep 
fissure  in  the  hardened  lava,  out  of  which  streamed  a 
sulphurous  vapour.  We  were  glad  to  lie  there  panting 
for  a  time  ;  and,  as  we  looked  out  over  the  steaming 
abyss,  we  saw  the  visored  slaves  flying  with  groans 
and  yells  to  their  work.  Some  thrust  bars  into  gleam- 
ing lava,  and  then  taking  great  hammers  smote  the 
metal  into  shape  upon  clanking  anvils.  Some  melted 
the  snow  from  the  rim  of  the  crater  and  poured  it  into 
channels  between  beds  of  well-dug  earth  that  showed 
green  buds  just  shooting  above  the  surface  ;  others 
gathered  fruit  from  plants  that  had  matured  in  this 
immense  forcing- ho  use;  whilst  others  laid  mould  deepl}' 
over  the  warm  rocks  and  mixed  with  it  the  debris  from 
below.  Here  it  was  that  the  lazzaroni  of  Tirralaria  had 
their  luxuries  produced  ;  this  was  the  huge  workshop 
of  the  island  ;  without  it  the  lapses  of  nature  left  to 
herself  would  long  before  this  have  let  the  race  fall  into 


184  Riallaro 

the  inane.  It  was  slave  labour,  and  that  under  the 
most  cruel  regime,  that  kept  this  anarchic  society  alive. 
Here  the  rigours  of  the  law  had  gathered  into  one  great 
clot  of  blood,  leaving  the  masters  in  idleness  and  law- 
lessness. 

We  were  not  long  left  to  conjecture  how  the  thongs 
stimulated  the  products  of  nature.  Across  the  abyss  I 
heard  a  wild  shriek,  and  a  stalwart  overseer  stood  in 
the  glow  of  the  red-hot  lava  with  lash  again  uplifted. 
But  the  slave  had  evaded  it  before  it  fell.  We  saw  the 
wretch  speed  to  the  lip  of  the  fire-lake,  the  knout-holder 
following,  though  at  a  distance.  Something  excep- 
tional was  about  to  occur,  for  all  the  rest,  slaves  as  well 
as  overseers,  raised  their  heads  and  let  their  instru- 
ments fall  to  the  ground.  Their  gaze  followed  the 
swift  feet  of  the  refugee.  Nearer  and  nearer  he  came 
to  the  crag  that  overlooked  the  lake  of  fire.'  Still  the 
pursuer  shouted  to  him  threats.  A  flash  from  the 
hidden  fires  lit  up  the  cracked  and  seamed  edges  of 
the  chasm,  whilst  a  wind  moved  aside  the  curtain  of 
steam  and  let  the  canopy  above  gleam  luridly.  When 
the  sulphurous  clifi"s  and  the  upper  clouds  seemed  to 
glow  with  the  light,  the  hurrying  figure  came  to  the 
edge  of  a  yellow  precipice,  and  with  the  impetus  of  the 
rush  hurled  itself  far  over  the  molten  lake  ;  we  saw  it 
turn  head  over  heels  and  then  vanish.  It  was  the 
work  of  a  moment,  and  my  guide  clutched'  me  and 
drew  me  on  with  a  whisper  hoarsened  by  alarm :  "  Flee 
for  your  life."  I  rushed  after  him  as  he  made  for  the 
lip  of  the  crater  towards  the  eye  of  the  wind,  for  I 
heard  a  low  thunder  beneath  our  feet,  and  a  louder 
rumbling  behind  us.  Wearied  though  I  had  been  by 
my  night's  climb  I  felt  my  limbs  light  as  thistledown. 
The  wind  was  rising  against  us,  yet  we  seemed  to  leap 


The  Midnight  Ascent  and  Flight     185 

from  fragment  to  fragment,  from  rock  to  rock  heedless 
of  its  force.  The  thunder  grew  behind  us,  and  seemed 
to  quicken  the  pace  of  my  guide.  We  reached  the  rim 
in  safety  and  crouched  in  the  snow  underneath  it. 
And  looking  up  we  saw  the  whole  heavens  lit,  and 
away  in  the  direction  of  the  ruined  city  a  fire  outlined 
on  sepulchral  black.  It  was  the  passion  of  the  mount- 
ain finding  new  vent.  We  crept  down  over  the  snow, 
sometimes  sliding  hundreds  of  feet  in  a  moment  over 
its  smooth  and  glistering  surfaces,  till  we  reached  the 
vegetation.  The  morning  had  begun  to  break,  so  my 
guide  quickened  his  pace  and  hid  in  the  densest  of  the 
thicket. 

Once  safely  covered,  he  seemed  to  get  the  command 
of  his  terror.  He  lay  for  a  time  panting  and  unable  to 
speak.  But,  when  his  throat  had  recovered  enough 
from  its  parched  state  to  be  the  channel  of  sound,  he 
whispered  :  "  We  must  get  out  of  this  ;  they  know  that 
we  are  on  the  crater,  and  they  will  pursue  us  as  soon 
as  the  eruption  is  over  ;  they  will  track  us  in  the  snow 
with  ease.  We  must  double  back  through  the  forest 
and  then  downwards  to  the  shore.  We  must  defeat  their 
scent."  He  fell  again  panting  to  the  ground,  his  face 
pallid  and  drawn.  It  must  have  been  exceptional  con- 
sternation that  had  so  dread  an  effect.  I  let  him  re- 
cover again,  and  then  asked  him  what  it  all  meant.  In 
a  low,  hoarse  tone  he  whispered  :  "  It  was  the  slave's 
vengeance.  The}^  know  that  if  they  plunge  a  body  of 
some  mass  into  a  certain  boiling  caldron  of  liquid  lava, 
the  mountain  will  regurgitate  it.  This  wretch  knew 
in  any  case  that  he  would  die  in  taking  revenge  for  the 
lash,  and  he  felt  perhaps  that  a  plunge  into  the  boiling 
fire  would  be  the  quickest  and  the  fullest  vengeance. 
His  pursuer  would  perish  before  he  turned  and  reached 


1 86  Riallaro 

the  rim  of  the  crater.  The  rest  who  were  nearer  it 
would  run  the  risk  of  being  overwhehned,  for  the  wind 
would  carry  the  ash  cloud  directly  over  their  heads." 

But  Sneekape  did  not  care  to  waste  time  over  talk. 
He  knew  from  the  experience  of  former  deputies  from 
his  island  how  prompt  and  complete  was  the  punish- 
ment for  being  caught  in  the  workshop  of  Tirralaria. 
So  we  set  out  again  and  doubled  on  our  path  ;  he  kept 
his  eye  on  the  cloud  over  the  peak,  and  ever  and  again 
put  aside  the  foliage  to  have  a  look  at  the  sea.  He 
clearl}^  knew  ever}'  district  of  the  island.  Once  or 
twice  he  stopped  and  listened  intently.  He  thought 
he  heard  the  far-off  cry  of  the  pursuers.  He  seemed 
satisfied,  and  took  advantage  of  the  pause  to  search  for 
wild  fruit  ;  we  both  ate  eagerly  from  several  trees  and 
bushes.  But  he  was  not  at  ease.  The  success  of  the 
pursuit  depended  on  whether  the}-  knew  that  his  falla 
lay  oflF  shore  for  him.  He  had  kept  the  fact  from 
them,  but  they  might  have  seen  her  from  the  mount- 
ain. He  had  also  a  canoe  from  her  lying  in  the  shelter 
of  a  cave  on  the  least  frequented  shore.  If  he  could 
put  his  pursuers  on  a  false  trail  and  then  gain  this 
means  of  escape,  there  would  be  no  danger  for  us.  All 
day  we  lay  in  a  thicket  some  hundreds  of  feet  above 
the  beach  waiting  the  protection  of  twilight  and  night. 
We  sated  our  appetites  with  the  berries  and  nuts 
around  us  and  put  a  small  store  away  in  one  of  our 
loose  and  unnecessary  rags.  He  kept  his  eye  on  the 
sea  through  a  crevice  in  the  foliage,  and  once  as  the 
sun  began  to  wester  he  started  with  alarm  ;  he  saw 
the  blistered  track  of  some  boat  that  had  crept  close 
to  the  shore  bronzing  in  the  yellow  light.  Whether  it 
was  the  eneni}-  or  his  own  men  it  was  difficult  to  say. 
He  crept,  still  under  cover,  to  the  point  of  a  promon- 


The  Midnight  Ascent  and  Flight     187 

tory  that  shot  sheer  down  into  the  ocean  ;  and  looking 
over  he  saw  the  rags  of  the  Tirralarians  flutter  in  the 
wind  as  they  bent  to  the  oars.  Almost  at  the  same 
moment  he  noticed  his  own  falla  tacking  far  on  the 
horizon,  evidently  waiting  some  emergency. 

He  returned  and  told  me  the  result  of  his  reconnais- 
sance. He  conjectured  that  the  overseers  had  com- 
municated with  the  capital  and  that  a  boat  had  been 
immediately  dispatched  along  shore  to  cut  off  our 
embarkation  on  the  falla.  Our  best  chance  lay  in  its 
keeping  on  its  course  to  his  usual  place  of  departure. 
It  was  likely  that  his  falla  would  lie  off  that  spot  and 
that  the  Tirralarian  boat  would  remain  all  night  be- 
tween it  and  the  shore.  We  would  then  makelfor  the 
canoe  which  lay  farther  to  the  west,  if  the  night 
favoured  us. 

Happily  the  gloom  was  profound,  for  the  sky  was 
moonless,  and  the  starlight  w^as  drenched  with  moisture 
and  shone  with  lustreless  and  dull  edge.  As  soon  as 
twilight  had  shuttled  its  pall  for  the  dead  sun  we  took 
our  little  store  of  fruits  and  started  down  the  hill  with 
extreme  caution.  If  either  of  us  snapped  a  twig  or  dry 
stick,  we  stood  with  beating  hearts,  all  ears.  Then  on 
again  with  slow  pacing.  It  must  have  been  midnight 
when  we  reached  the  rocky  shore.  Sneekape  felt  his 
way  till  he  found  a  tree  of  singular  growth,  all  bent 
and  gnarled  by  the  beat  of  the  waves  and  the  salt  spray. 
Then  he  doffed  his  rags  and  dived  from  the  edge  of 
the  rock.  Within  a  few  minutes  he  had  found  his 
canoe  in  the  cave,  unmoored  it,  and  paddled  his  way 
to  an  easy  descent.  I  carried  down  his  rags  and  our 
stores,  and  embarked. 

Cautiously  we  stole  out  from  the  shelter  of  the  cliffs  ; 
he  shot  his  paddle  into  the  water  with  such  care  that 


1 88  Riallaro 

not  a  ripple  could  be  heard,  and  I  aided  with  my  hands 
over  the  side.  About  three  or  four  hundred  yards  from 
the  shore  we  opened  out  a  baj^  behind  a  far  out-jutting 
promoutor}'  ;  and  as  I  looked  back  I  saw  a  dark  object 
close  inshore  break  the  faint  gleam  of  starlight  on  the 
water.  Sneekape  raised  his  eyes  and  fell  into  his  former 
panic.  His  paddle  would  have  fallen  into  the  sea  had 
I  not  caught  it.  The  movement  seemed  to  awaken  the 
distant  shadow,  and  the  sound  of  oars  soon  broke  the 
still  night  air.     Our  pursuers  were  on  our  track. 

Sneekape  immediately  recovered  his  presence  of 
mind.  Our  only  chance  of  escape  lay  in  what  he  took 
to  be  the  position  of  the  falla.  We  were  quite  two 
miles  away  from  our  would-be  captors.  We  strained 
every  nerve.  Yet  they  gained  on  us.  The  two  miles 
were  rapidly  reducing  to  one.  We  could  hear  the 
muffled  beat  of  their  oars. 

My  companion  seemed,  however,  less  excited  than 
he  had  been.  He  even  seemed  to  relieve  the  tension 
of  his  paddle  in  its  stroke.  Was  he  losing  his  senses  ? 
I  dared  not  break  in  upon  his  work  lest  it  should  lapse 
altogether.  I  felt  a  shiver  run  through  me  as  if  a  cold 
wind  had  blown.  I  looked  behind,  and  the  island  had 
vanished  in  mist.  And  even  as  I  gazed,  the  dim  veil 
enveloped  the  dark  shadow  on  the  water  that  was 
straining  after  us.  I  could  feel  our  canoe  jerk  into 
another  direction,  almost  at  right  angles  to  our  pre- 
vious path.  The  beat  of  the  pursuing  oars  was 
swallowed  up  in  silence.  In  about  half  an  hour  my 
companion  laid  his  paddle  down  and  threw  himself 
down  on  the  bottom  of  our  canoe  and  laughed  a  long, 
low  laugh.  The  fog  had  outwitted  the  revenge  of  the 
advisers  of  the  people. 

We  were  so  wearied  with  the  long  strain  that  in  spite 


The  Midnight  Ascent  and  FHght     189 

of  our  rags  and  the  chill  of  the  night  we  stretched  our- 
selves and  fell  asleep.  When  morning  broke  the  thick 
veil  was  still  over  the  sea,  and  where  we  were  we  knew 
not.  We  relieved  the  pangs  of  hunger  and  waited.  It 
seemed  as  if  we  had  got  into  some  current,  for  either 
we  were  moving  with  considerable  swiftness  through 
the  mist,  or  the  mist  was  driving  over  us. 

As  the  sun  rose  towards  the  zenith  the  dense  veil 
grew  more  transparent,  and  then  rent  in  twain.  We 
saw  the  blue  sky  above  ;  and  soon  the  whole  envelop- 
ment of  the  world  had  melted  into  the  azure.  Klimarol 
was  a  white  phantom  on  the  horizon  with  a  thin  blos- 
som of  cloud  above  it.  Nothing  else  broke  the  outlook 
in  that  direction  ;  but  in  the  opposite,  whither  we  were 
rapidly  drifting,  a  low  coast  lay  like  a  thin  nebulous 
stratum. 

Sneekape,  when  he  looked  round  at  my  gesture,  gave 
a  cr}^  of  surprise.  He  had  expected  to  be  near  his  falla. 
But  it  was  not  to  be  seen  ;  and  he  had  not  yet  made 
out  what  island  it  was  that  we  were  bearing  down  on. 
This  consolation  we  had,  that  we  had  enough  fruit  with 
us  to  serve  the  day's  wants,  and  the  new  land  seemed 
less  than  a  day's  journey  from  where  we  were. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


MEDDLA 


IT  was  not  far  in  the  afternoon  when  ni}^  companion, 
taking  a  look  ahead,  gave  a  long,  low  whistle  and 
laughed.  He  had  recognised  some  feature  of  the  land 
we  were  now  approaching.  "  You  will  have  some  fun 
here,"  he  said.  "  We  shall  have  to  bridge  our  way 
over  the  lunatic  asylum  of  the  archipelago.  It  is  a 
series  of  islets  on  which  we  have  classified  and  quaran- 
tined our  cranks  for  many  ages.  Anyone  ridden  by  a 
fixed  idea  or  habit  is  shipped  off  to  those  of  his  own 
kin.  So  we  keep  our  communities  clear  of  quixotism 
and  crazy  eccentricity.  You  will  see  each  for  yourself, 
for  we  cannot  get  to  Figlefia  unless  by  passing  over 
every  one  of  these  islets  in  order  to  provision  our  canoe 
for  each  voyage  across  the  passages  between  them. 
We  call  the  group  I,oonarie  ;  but  each  has  its  own 
special  and  grandiloquent  name  to  distinguish  it,  for 
they  have  a  supreme  contempt  for  one  another." 

We  paddled  and  drifted  with  considerable  rapidity, 
and  the  features  of  an  island  grew  more  and  mote  dis- 
tinct ;  for  the  current  which  bore  us  evidently  ran  close 
inshore.  The  beach  swarmed  with  people  as  we  ap- 
proached ;  their  fantastic  dresses  made  a  brilliant  but 
grotesque   scene;  everj'one   seemed  to  have   tried   to 

190 


Meddla  191 

produce  as  loud  and  individual  an-effect  as  possible  by 
the  colour  and  shape  of  his  garments  and  the  slovenly 
way  in  which  he  had  pitchforked  them  on.  It  was  not 
the  colours  of  the  rainbow,  but  a  complete  diapason  of 
discordant  colours.  As  we  got  nearer  they  seemed  to 
have  chosen  garments  by  lottery.  Their  lean,  lank 
forms  showed  like  May-poles  in  the  loose  finery  ;  and 
their  sharp  faces  and  small  red  heads  almost  disap- 
peared in  the  enormous  beribboned  turbans  they  wore. 
They  all  looked  preternaturall}'  solemn  and  wise. 
There  was  much  buttonholing  amongst  them,  and 
most  confidential  communications  were  evidently  pass- 
ing from  lip  to  ear. 

I  feared  some  sinister  purpose  with  regard  to  our- 
selves. But  Sneekape  laughed  when  I  mentioned  the 
idea.  "  They  only  wish  to  convert  you  to  their  way  of 
thinking,  and  each  is  getting  ready  for  the  assault. 
One  soul  gained  to  their  side,  they  say,  is  one  soul 
saved.     Propaganda  is  their  passion." 

We  beached  our  canoe  amid  much  dignified  fussing 
that  really  delaj^ed  us  instead  of  helping  us.  I  thought 
the  efforts  they  made  to  do  us  a  service  would  have 
landed  us  all  in  the  surf — a  matter  of  little  conse- 
quence to  us  in  our  rags,  but  somewhat  serious  to  them 
and  their  ill-harmonised  finery.  We  were  like  to  be 
torn  into  fragments  by  the  candidates  for  our  friend- 
ship when  we  had  got  our  feet  on  the  sand.  They 
were  all  eager  to  clothe  us.  Sneekape  rescued  me  from 
a  dozen  who  clutched  at  my  rags;  and  we  followed  the 
most  dignified  personage  in  the  crowd  and  got  re- 
clothed.  I  had  imagined  that  it  was  in  pure  charity 
they  had  been  eager  to  substitute  something  better  for 
our  rags.  But  it  turned  out  that  we  had  to  pay  most 
handsomely  for  our  new  and  gorgeous  garments,  and 


192  Riallaro 

that  they  were  the  uuiforni  of  a  party.  The  benevo- 
lence lay  in  taking  the  custom  to  a  shop  owned  by  one 
of  the  part}^  and  perhaps  in  saving  our  souls  b}'  giving 
us  the  badge  of  that  party. 

The  majestic  ribbon-pole  who  had  captured  us  en- 
tered into  conversation  with  me  in  Aleofanian.  He 
had  seen  me  in  Aleofane  when  he  was  there  on  a  mis- 
sion to  the  heathen  ;  and  he  had  yearned  to  save 
my  soul  from  the  baneful  influence  of  men  who  had 
not  the  true  faith  —  faith  in  altruism.  He  asked  me 
if  I  knew  that  I  had  landed  in  one  of  the  noblest 
countries  in  the  universe,  Meddla,  the  Isle  of  Philan- 
thropy. Here  was  the  true  centre  of  the  universal  fire 
of  love.  Here  lived  those  who  yearned  to  save  the 
souls  of  their  neighbours,  who  cared  not  what  became 
of  themselves,  if  only  other  men  were  saved.  Had  I 
thought  over  the  momentous  question  of  the  true  har- 
mony of  colours  ?  Of  course  a  man  of  experience  such 
as  I  was  had  thought  it  out  and  decided  that  green  and 
blue  were  the  divine  mixture,  were  indicative  of  the 
noblest  qualities  that  God  had  conferred  on  human 
character.  I  looked  down  and  saw  that  my  new  gar- 
ments were  a  motley  of  green  and  blue  ;  and  of  course 
I  knew  that  black  and  yellow  were  the  colours  of  the 
principle  of  evil.  Ah,  if  only  men  knew  how  much  the 
difference  meant  to  their  souls  and  to  the  destiny  of 
the  world,  the}'  would  not  trifle  with  the  question  !  It 
was  the  deadliest  poison,  the  rankest  sin  to  wear  black 
and  yellow.  All  moral  evils  went  with  this  mixture. 
And  if  I  knew  how  serious  a  thing  life  was,  I  would 
join  them  in  their  crusade  against  this  diabolism  in 
colour,  would  put  forth  every  effort  to  suppress  it  and 
prevent  the  world  being  lost. 

I  would  have  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter,  but  that 


Meddla  193 

I  caught  a  warning  glance  in  Sneekape's  e5'e.  I  kept 
serious  and  he  helped  to  rescue  me  from  the  enthusiast 
and  devotee  of  green  and  blue,  by  whispering  some- 
thing in  his  ear  that  spread  a  radiant  smile  over  the 
meagre  face. 

He  had  not  left  us  many  minutes,  when  I  was  pounced 
upon  by  another  May-pole,  who  thrust  his  little  head 
into  my  face  and  addressing  me  in  Aleofanian  wished 
to  know  what  I  thought  of  Meddla.  Was  it  not  the 
greatest  communit}^  on  the  globe  ?  Had  it  not  reached 
the  acme  of  civilisation  ?  Did  not  its  fundamental 
principle  of  anxiety  for  the  souls  of  others  make  it  the 
centre  of  the  universe  ? 

I  told  him  that  I  was  afraid  that  I  had  not  had  time 
or  opportunity  for  forming  a  judgment.  I  had  just 
landed  and  had  never  seen  the  island  before.  He  must 
excuse  me  if  I  did  not  answer  his  questions. 

But  I  had  spoken  with  Wispra,  one  of  their  leaders  ; 
what  did  I  think  of  him  ?  What  were  his  faults  ? 
The  speaker  had  the  deepest  love  for  his  fellow-men  as 
all  Meddlarians  must  have,  but  he  must  exercise  that 
love  in  sweeping  all  faults  and  vices  out  of  their  civil- 
isation. Foreigners  were  the  most  apt  critics  ;  they 
could  see  flaws,  which  home  eyes  passed  over  from 
long  custom. 

Well,  if  he  would  insist,  I  thought  that  Wispra  was 
a  little  dogmatic.  At  the  word,  the  little  head  shook 
with  excitement  and  wagged  with  stifled  wisdom. 
Was  that  his  fault  ?  Of  course  it  was.  And  it  was 
the  fault  of  all  Meddlarian  human  nature.  Oh,  he 
was  delighted  to  have  found  it  out  !  And  he  would 
cure  it  straightway.  The  legislature  was  just  sitting. 
He  would  call  a  meeting  and  get  a  resolution  passed  in 
favour  of  the  complete  abolition  of  dogmatism.     He 


194  Riallaro 

would  send  large  posters  and  tracts  all  over  the  island 
urging  immediate  action.  His  agents  and  supporters 
would  get  up  public  meetings  in  every  village  and 
settlement  ;  and  mile-long  petitions  would  soon  roll  in 
to  the  assembly,  asking  it  to  suppress  this  vice.  A  law 
would  be  passed,  I  should  see,  within  a  week  prohibit- 
ing the  use  of  dogmatism  in  conversation,  or  in  any 
form  of  speech  under  the  most  rigorous  penalties.  He 
would  be  the  saviour  of  his  country. 

Away  bustled  the  lank  agitator,  oscillating  his  wise 
head  in  excitement  ;  he  must  set  the  crusade  afoot 
that  very  minute.  Before  I  left  the  island  I  found 
him  and  his  disciples  persecuting  the  dissentients  from 
his  views  and  calling  them  b}^  the  most  opprobrious 
epithets  ;  they  would  have  no  conditioning  of  their 
dogmas,  and  no  questioning  of  their  assertions  ;  they 
would  listen  to  no  argument,  but  howled  down  in  their 
meetings  everyone  who  dared  to  advise  caution  and 
consideration  before  venturing  on  a  crusade  against 
so  widespread  and  delightful  a  method  of  speech. 
Such  mild  protest  was  taken  up  and  used  as  a  missile 
for  wounding  the  protester  and  his  sympathisers.  It 
showed,  the  speakers  from  the  platform  said,  how 
necessary  the  reform  was  when  a  man  would  have  the 
hardihood  to  stand  up  in  a  respectable  audience  and 
declare  in  the  same  breath  that  the  habit  was  universal 
and  yet  that  it  should  be  approached  with  caution. 
Before  the  week  was  out,  I  had  to  leave  ;  but  I  saw 
that  the  agitation  was  working  its  way  through  the 
island  and  splitting  up  parties  into  new  and  surprising 
sections  ;  households  were  rent  asunder,  old  friend- 
ships broken,  old  loyalties  dissolved;  I  began  to  regret 
that  I  had  ever  uttered  the  word  to  my  buttonholer. 
And  so  did  Sneekape  ;  for  he  knew  that  they  would 


Meddla  195 

send  out  missionaries  to  the  adjacent  islands  to  disturb 
and  harass  the  souls  of  their  inhabitants  in  order  to 
achieve  their  sah^ation. 

Some  of  the  greatest  popular  movements  of  their  past 
had  had,  I  ascertained,  marvellous  results.  One  of 
them  had  been  for  the  spread  of  the  custom  of  wiping 
the  nose  with  a  handkerchief  ;  a  section  of  the  com- 
munity had  been  satisfied  for  centuries  with  their  sleeve 
or  their  fingers.  After  two  or  three  ages  of  wild  poli- 
tical agitation,  a  law  was  passed  making  it  penal  to 
accomplish  the  act  without  an  oflficially  marked  piece 
of  cloth  ;  and  there  was  a  large  charity  organisation 
which  spent  all  its  days  and  nights  in  making  and 
distributing  amongst  the  poor  patent  attachments  that 
would  keep  the  government  handkerchiefs  hung  close 
to  the  nose  ;  and  it  had  a  paid  staff  of  teachers  and 
preachers  who  went  around  educating  the  people  how 
to  save  their  souls  by  wiping  their  noses  in  the  proper 
way. 

Another  great  reform  that  had  come  about  after  long 
searchings  of  the  national  spirit  and  untold  sufferings 
on  the  part  of  its  advocates  and  martyrs  was  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  practice  of  thrusting  the  hands  in  the 
pockets.  The  reformers  saw  that  this  introduced  in- 
dolence and  its  attendant  maladies  and  vices,  and  this 
imperilled  the  salvation  of  thousands  of  innocent  victims 
to  the  habit,  who  began  it  in  childhood  when  they  did 
not  know  what  to  do  with  their  hands,  or  in  cold  sea- 
sons, when  they  needed  warmth  ;  the  practice  was 
most  insidious  ;  it  had  generally  mastered  a  man  be- 
fore he  knew  that  he  had  begun  it  ;  and  no  preaching, 
no  demonstration  of  its  awful  consequences  could  break 
him  of  it.  After  heroic  efforts,  a  law  was  passed  pro- 
hibiting the  habit  under  the  severest  penalties.     Yet  it 


196  Riallaro 

was  by  no  means  eradicated  ;  men  preferred  being  im- 
prisoned to  giving  it  up.  So  there  was  a  great  society, 
chiefly  of  women,  who  busied  themselves  in  watching 
offences  against  the  laws  and  prosecuting  the  offenders. 
But  they  were  too  philanthropic  to  confine  themselves 
to  such  negative  proceedings  ;  they  distributed  gloves 
gratis  in  winter  and  the  members  went  about  with 
needle  and  thread  sewing  up  the  openings  of  trousers 
pockets.  They  were  the  busiest  Of  all  the  citizens  j-et; 
for  gloves  had  a  trick  of  getting  lost  and  sewing  a  trick 
of  coming  undone;  and  the  kind-hearted  women  found 
themselves  worn  to  shadows  in  their  unselfish  endeav- 
ours to  make  the  law  a  reality. 

Another  law  had  been  passed  after  great  commotion 
to  compel  the  people  to  wear  table  napkins  when  feed- 
ing ;  slovenliness  and  uncleanliness  were  two  of  the 
most  soul-destroying  vices  ;  and,  if  the  meals  were 
taken  in  order  and  without  soil,  all  other  virtues  would 
follow.  Another  huge  organisation  busied  itself  in 
distributing  tracts  on  the  nobleness  of  the  practice  that 
the  law  commanded  and  in  supplying  napkins  to  those 
who  could  not  afford  them  ;  recentl}'  they  had,  on  the 
suggestion  of  one  whom  they  revered  as  a  genius, 
combined  their  two  functions  and  printed  their  tracts 
on  the  napkins  they  gave  gratis.  The  members  all  felt 
that  the  eyes  of  mankind  were  upon  them,  as  they 
went  round  the  various  villages  seeing  that  their  nap- 
kins were  tied  on  properly. 

The}'  had  a  multitude  of  prohibitory  laws  for  the 
cure  of  every  habit  that  anyone  had  considered  evil  or 
worked  up  a  movement  for  the  suppression  of.  One 
forbade  the  raising  of  the  little  finger  in  drinking,  an- 
other the  wearing  of  hats  so  large  as  to  occupy  too 
much  space  in  the  streets,  another  the  use  of  expletives, 


Meddla  197 

another  the  mutilation  of  a  guttural  sound  that  was  apt 
to  pass  into  a  palatal,  another  the  habit  of  bo5'S  stand- 
ing on  their  heads  in  public  places,  another  the  use  of 
worms  in  fishing,  another  the  following  of  any  business 
on  certain  hours  of  certain  days. 

The  statnte-book  was  an  enormous  one,  and  was 
filled  with  such  laws  as  these.  A  considerable  number 
clashed  with  others,  and  j^et  there  were  societies  founded 
to  see  the  carrying  out  of  each  of  the  conflicting  statutes, 
and  their  agents  and  supporters  often  came  into  fierce 
collision,  reaping  on  each  side  a  full  harvest  of  bloody 
noses  and  cracked  crowns.  But  this  only  made  the 
devotees  more  devoted.  Most  of  the  prohibitions  ended 
in  rooting  the  habit  more  deepl}^,  by  sending  it  under- 
ground. One  instance  was  the  law  for  the  suppression 
of  winking  except  on  the  approach  of  sleep  ;  prosecu- 
tions always  failed  because  the  culprit  generally  con- 
trived to  fall  asleep  on  the  way  to  court  or  prison  and 
so  destroyed  the  case  against  him.  I  never  saw  so 
much  winking  in  any  community  of  the  same  size  ;  I 
thought  at  first  that  they  were  all  in  the  incipient  stage 
of  eye  disease  or  of  paralysis;  but  an  arrest  by  an  agent 
of  the  anti-winking  society  cleared  up  the  mystery  for 
me. 

Of  course  I  soon  saw  that  the  greater  matters  of  the 
law  had  to  be  neglected  in  order  to  join  in  these  quixotic 
crusades.  The  population  had  fallen  into  drunkenness, 
lying,  thieving,  slandering,  fornication,  and  even  mur- 
der. Every  man  and  woman  had  some  one  or  more  of 
these  vices  ;  and  all  were  accomplished  h5'pocrites,  I 
discovered  before  I  left.  Yet  they  all  spent  as  much 
time  as  they  could  save  from  business  or  amusement  in 
the  pursuit  of  the  salvation  of  their  neighbours.  Every 
citizen  of  either  sex  was  a  member  and  spy  of  one  or 


198  Riallaro 

more  of  these  philanthropic  societies,  and  was  ever 
joining  in  some  movement  for  getting  the  legislature 
to  make  the  prohibition  more  rigorous  and  detailed  ; 
and  none  of  them  but  thought  that  the  gaze  of  crea- 
tion was  upon  them  as  they  followed  their  crusade. 
They  were  the  true  saviours  of  the  world  ;  they  had 
the  salt  of  love  and  altruism  that  would  never  lose  its 
savour  ;  they  had  reached  the  secret  of  true  happiness. 
In  spite  of  their  philanthropy,  they  were  eaten  up  with 
envy,  jealousy,  malice,  and  all  the  minor  evil  feelings 
that  sting  men  and  make  men  sting  each  other. 

I  was  quite  prepared  to  believe  Sneekape  when  he 
said  that  the  archipelago  translated  the  name  of  the 
island  differentl}^  from  the  inhabitants  ;  it  was  the  Isle 
of  Busybodies.  The  gradual  discovery  of  the  true 
nature  of  the  people  made  me  glad  to  escape.  We 
went  off  without  notice  one  midnight  in  our  canoe, 
which  we  had  well  provisioned  some  days  before.    • 


CHAPTER  XIX 


WOTNEKST 


THERE  was  an  island  near  that  carried  the  belief 
in  the  potency  of  law  to  a  still  more  insane  pitch. 
I  had  heard  of  people  with  new-born  legislative  func- 
tions thinking  that  they  could  accomplish  anything 
they  desired  b}^  merely  passing  a  law.  Revolutionar}^ 
fervour  even  in  the  West  had  worked  wonders  with 
the  human  power  of  self-delusion.  But  the  story  of 
the  isle  of  Wotnekst  or  Godlaw,  as  it  might  be  trans- 
lated, roused  ni}^  curiosity.  I  could  not  believe  that 
there  existed  outside  of  lunatic  asylums  a  people  so  far 
gone  in  hallucination. 

Much  against  the  w^ill  of  Sneekape  we  were  driven 
by  the  current  and  the  wind  right  upon  a  lonely  beach 
of  the  island.  As  it  was  evening,  I  persuaded  him  to 
camp  on  the  shore  for  the  night.  Before  we  were 
fully  awake  in  the  morning  we  were  surrounded  by  a 
crowd  of  the  most  tattered  and  slovenly  men  and 
women  I  had  ever  seen,  and  this  after  I  had  been  in 
Tirralaria.  There  w'as  a  wild,  fanatic  light  in  their 
ej-es  that  warned  us  to  humour  their  fondest  freak. 
They  stood  between  us  and  the  margin  of  the  sea  where 
our  boat  was  beached,  and  we  saw  that  they  meant  to 
shepherd  us  inland,  whether  as  pre}-  or  guests  we  could 

199 


200  Riallaro 

not  tell.  Sneekape  made  the  best  of  a  bad  bargain  and, 
after  taking  a  slender  meal  of  what  we  had  left  from 
supper,  he  marched  away  from  the  shore  and  I  fol- 
lowed.    The  tatterdemalions  began  to  move  too. 

It  was  one  of  our  pieces  of  good  fortune  that  my 
companion,  though  he  had  never  made  an  expedition 
to  the  island,  because  of  its  lack  of  attractive  quarry, 
had  amongst  his  many  accomplishments  acquired  a 
smattering  of  its  language  from  some  of  the  descendants 
of  those  who  had  escaped  from  it.  For  they  had  not 
long  before  passed  a  law  that  their  language  should  be 
and  was  the  universal  language  of  the  world;  they  had 
long  enough  suffered  from  having  to  learn  the  lan- 
guages of  barbarians  and  foreigners,  in  order  to  have 
intercourse  with  them ;  they  would  suffer  the  indignity 
no  longer;  other  men  must  learn  Wotnekstian;  and  in 
fact  it  was  their  true,  natural,  or  mother  tongue,  and 
the}^  had  forgotten  it  only  through  their  negligence  ; 
it  was  time  that  they  picked  it  up  again,  and  they 
would  have  no  trouble  in  doing  so,  once  the  auxiliary 
series  of  laws  was  passed  for  enabling  foreigners  to  learn 
the  language  in  a  day.  They  should  like  to  know  how 
any  man  could  fail  to  learn  it  once  the  legislature  of 
Wotnekst  had  taken  the  matter  in  hand  and  passed  the 
necessary  laws.  They  should  like  to  know  what  Na- 
ture had  been  doing  all  these  centuries  in  letting  the 
native  tongue  of  the  earth  fall  into  desuetude  in  so 
many  nations.  Nature  knew  well  that  Wotnekst  was 
the  primitive  source  of  all  mankind  and  had  remained 
the  leading  country  of  the  earth  and  the  model  for  men 
to  follow.  It  had  been  foremost  in  legislation  and  had 
shown  the  way  to  the  whole  world ;  for  legislation  was 
the  supreme  factor  of  life. 

I  heard  the  loud  and  threatening  eloquence,   and 


Wotnekst  201 

though  I  did  not  understand  the  import  of  it  I  knew 
from  its  tone  that  I  had  better  keep  silence,  I  shel- 
tered under  the  knowledge  of  Sneekape,  and  watched 
him  negotiate  and  cringe  and  flatter.  I  afterwards 
discovered  that  it  was  his  knowledge  of  the  language, 
meagre  though  it  was,  that  saved  us  from  terrors  they 
did  not  attempt  to  define.  Sneekape  knew  their  gen- 
eral reputation  in  the  archipelago  as  a  feeble  folk  too 
loquacious  to  do  any  harm.  Yet  he  showed  by  his 
cowering  and  fawning  look  that  he  was  not  quite  sure 
what  might  occur  ;  and  the  more  he  spanielled  them 
the  louder  and  more  arrogant  they  grew.  It  was  then 
I  knew  by  instinct  that  the}'  were  cowards,  attempting 
to  hide  their  cowardice  and  drive  courage  and  boldness 
out  of  the  hearts  of  possible  assailants.  Once  Sneekape 
took  in  the  situation,  he  changed  his  attitude  and 
adopted  their  loud  voice  and  swaggering  gait.  He 
was,  as  I  had  seen,  a  master  of  effrontery  and  fanfaron- 
ade. But  his  change  of  role  was  too  sudden  to  im- 
press them  ;  and  they  had  gathered  confidence  and 
impetus  from  the  torrent  of  their  own  blustering  and 
rhodomontade  and  from  their  growing  numbers  as  they 
approached  the  town.  They  outbrassed  the  insolence 
and  swagger  of  Sneekape,  and  he  cut  but  a  poor  figure 
for  the  rest  of  the  march  to  our  destination. 

We  could  not  see  the  houses  for  a  long  time  ;  and 
when  we  came  amongst  them  we  still  looked  for  the 
town  ahead  of  us.  The  hovels  were  so  squat  and  mean 
and  filthy  that  we  could  not  imagine  human  beings 
living  in  them  ;  but  we  soon  stopped  before  one  that 
was  conspicuous  for  having  been  built  as  a  penthouse 
to  the  ruin  of  what  had  once  been  a  considerable  edi- 
fice. We  were  informed  that  this  was  the  capitol,  the 
very  centre  of  the  civilisation  and  power  of  the  world, 


202  Riallaro 

and  that  what  we  saw  around  us  was  the  greatest  city 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  filthy  kennels  were  the 
town,  and  this  pigst}^  was  the  residence  of  the  go^^ern- 
ment. 

We  were  led  to  the  door,  and  one  examined  the  con- 
tents of  my  pockets  and  handed  them  over  to  an  official 
within.  Another  took  his  place  and  examined  my  hat 
and  grubbed  in  my  hair.  A  third  stepped  forward  and 
ransacked  the  inner  places  of  my  garments.  And  so 
on  the  investigation  proceeded  over  the  whole  of  my 
person  till  every  crevice  and  opening  was  examined. 
Then  marched  up  another  group,  and  through  Sneekape 
made  sundry  inquiries  as  to  our  origin,  past  history, 
means  of  subsistence,  ultimate  destination,  race,  re- 
ligion, political  tenets,  attitude  towards  the  existing 
government,  views  on  the  exciting  questions  of  the 
island  and  the  day,  and  endless  details  that  w^ere  of  no 
consequence  to  any  but  ourselves  and  of  little  conse- 
quence to  ourselves.  A  third  set  pursued  an  investi- 
gation into  our  health  ;  and  a  fourth  into  the  health  of 
the  island  we  had  last  visited.  In  fact  our  examination 
continued  all  through  the  day;  and  my  belief  is  that  it 
would  have  gone  on  for  weeks  till  we  had  dropped 
from  emaciation  and  fatigue,  but  that  the  leading  poli- 
tician had  been  disturbed  in  his  attempt  at  sleeping  in- 
side, and  had  rushed  out  in  a  frenzy  and  dispersed  the 
crowd. 

Left  to  our  own  resources,  Sneekape  and  I  foraged 
about  till  we  found  a  few  scraps  to  eat ;  for  we  were 
famishing  ;  and  from  sheer  fatigue  we  lay  down  under 
the  shelter  of  a  tree,  and  without  troubling  to  find  an 
elevation  or  even  a  stone  for  a  pillow  we  were  dead 
asleep  at  once.  We  awoke  in  broad  daylight  to  find 
ourselves  again  the  centre  of  a  tattered  and  inquisitive 


Wotnekst  203 

crowd.  I  heard  Sneekape  mutter  under  his  breath  : 
"  God  help  us!  another  plague  of  inspectors!  "  Then 
I  realised  what  we  had  gone  through  and  what  w^e 
might  have  still  to  go  through.  Ever}'  person  in  that 
mob  which  had  shepherded  us  up  from  our  boat  was  a 
government  inspector  of  immigration  and  importation, 
and  had  to  show  his  zeal  for  administration  whenever 
a  stranger  landed.  They  had  several  thousand  acts  re- 
lating to  aliens  who  approached  their  shores,  and  every 
act  had  necessitated  the  appointment  of  so  many  officials 
to  see  its  provisions  carried  out.  There  had  been  in 
former  ages  considerable  commerce  centring  in  the 
island  ;  but  the  minute  regulations  for  its  conduct  had 
frightened  every  merchant  and  sailor  from  its  shores. 
There  was  nothing  left  of  its  olden  trade  but  the 
countless  laws  passed  for  its  administration  and  devel- 
opment and  the  mob  of  inspectors  to  see  them  enforced. 
There  were  inspectors  of  tides,  of  harbours,  of  fore- 
shores, of  weather,  of  clouds,  of  shoals,  of  rocks,  of 
captains,  of  crews,  of  native  sailors,  of  foreign  sailors, 
of  native  passengers,  of  aliens,  of  goods,  of  native  and 
foreign  clothing,  of  native  and  alien  epidermis,  of  native 
and  alien  vermin,  of  native  and  alien  diseases  ;  the  list 
proceeds  through  a  whole  encyclopedia  of  detail.  Yet 
all  the  imports  thej'  were  able  to  inspect  were  the 
planks  and  nails  and  bolts  of  an  occasional  shipwreck, 
and  all  the  human  beings  were  strangers  driven  by  stress 
of  weather  or  current  on  to  their  inhospitable  beaches. 
Our  arrival  was  an  era  in  the  existence  of  this  host  of 
inspectors. 

But  the  legislators  were  as  eager  to  have  a  foreign 
audience,  and  rescued  us  from  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
inspectorate.  A  special  act  was  passed  relieving  us 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  thousand  alien  laws  that 


204  Riallaro 

were  to  be  found  on  the  statute-book  and  of  the  ten 
thousand  inspectors  who  were  to  enforce  them.  We 
were  feted  and  banquetted  and  made  so  much  of  that 
we  could  not  get  a  moment  to  ourselves  or  sufficient 
hours  for  sleep.  The  worst  of  it  was  that  all  their 
feasts  were  of  the  Barmecide  order.  We  were  urged  to 
help  ourselves  ;  but  there  was  never  anything  to  help 
ourselves  to.  The  speeches  were  most  grandiloquent, 
and  often  laudatory  ;  but  we  should  have  been  better 
satisfied  with  a  crust  of  bread.  Nor  dared  we  hint  that 
we  were  starving  ;  for  that  would  have  reflected  on 
their  hospitality,  and  perhaps  led  to  unpleasant  conse- 
quences. Now  and  again  we  tried  to  get  away  from 
our  eulogists  amongst  the  fruit  trees  that  Nature  pro- 
vided.on  the  island;  but  on  our  escapades  we  generally 
found  every  branch  rifled  ;  and  we  were  generally  cap- 
tured before  we  went  far,  they  were  so  eager  to  induce 
foreigners  to  settle  on  their  island  or  traffic  with  them. 
If  only  we  would  return  and  bring  others  with  us,  they 
would  pass  innumerable  laws  for  our  benefit.  They 
had  not  3^et  realised  that  it  was  too  much  legislation 
that  had  isolated  them  ;  for  it  was  now  the  only  thing 
they  had  to  lavish.  But  Sneekape  saw  his  opportunity 
and  seized  it.  He  promised  that  he  would  flood  their 
shores  with  merchants  and  traders  ;  and  he  effected 
his  purpose.  We  were  allowed  to  depart  before  emaci- 
ation made  us  incapable  of  leaving  ;  and  we  were 
accorded  on  the  beach  the  most  fervent  of  farewells. 

When  we  had  drawn  out  of  sight  of  the  land,  the 
wind  favouring  us,  Sneekape  pulled  from  underneath 
the  planking  of  the  boat  some  of  the  fruits  we  were 
familiar  with  on  these  islands.  Without  my  stopping  to 
inquire  how  he  had  got  them,  we  ravenously  ate  them. 
Feeling  appeased,  I  tried  to  find  out  what  ingenuity  of 


Wotnekst  205 

his  had  extracted  food  from  an  island  that  seemed  to  be 
without  it.  He  had  managed  to  get  into  one  of  their 
households  and  to  flatter  the  women  and  they  had  pro- 
vided him.  I  suspected  from  his  look  and  his  reluct- 
ance that  there  was  some  baseness  or  intrigue  that 
even  his  mean  spirit  had  become  ashamed  of,  and  I 
pressed  him  no  further. 

He  was  quick  to  recover  from  such  an  unusual 
emotion  ;  and  after  a  few  hours'  sleep  in  the  bottom  of 
the  boat,  his  vanity  came  uppermost.  He  awoke  in  the 
best  of  humour  with  himself  and  his  achiev^ements  and 
discernment,  and  I  had  a  full  account  of  his  past  know- 
ledge of  the  island  and  his  immediate  observations  on  it. 

It  was  the  most  fertile  in  the  archipelago  and  the 
richest  in  the  precious  metals  and  the  common  minerals; 
and  it  had  at  one  time  bidden  fair  to  be  the  most  opu- 
lent. The  people,  though  too  fond  of  politics,  had 
been  industrious  and  thrifty.  There  were  several  large 
cities  in  the  island  full  of  splendid  buildings  public 
and  private.  The  coast  was  studded  with  excellent 
harbours  constantly  filled  with  ships  loading  for  other 
parts  of  the  archipelago.  They  kept  a  strong  fleet 
for  the  protection  of  themselves  and  their  commerce. 
Wotnekst  was  the  envy  of  the  other  islands. 

What  had  brought  most  of  its  population  together 
was  the  belief  that  if  only  they  could  each  get  his  pet 
political  theory  put  into  practice,  the  world  would  be 
saved  and  the  millennium  would  be  here.  Every  leisure 
moment  they  had  they  spent  in  discussion  with  each 
other  on  their  favourite  topic.  The}^  had  started  as  a 
republic  with  complete  freedom  of  meeting  and  speech; 
and  so  there  was  no  bridle  to  their  dominant  pas- 
sion. Politics  was  talked  of  every  hour  of  the  daj'  and 
dreamed  of  every  hour  of  the  night  ;  and  their  dreams 


2o6  Riallaro 

were  perhaps  less  mad  than  their  daylight  projects. 
Every  man  tried  to  outvie  his  neighbour  in  the  eccen- 
tricity of  his  theories  and  suggestions  ;  and  the}-  were 
gauged  and  promoted  not  in  proportion  to  their  wisdom 
and  practicability,  but  in  proportion  to  their  departure 
from  the  beaten  paths  of  tradition.  Every  one  was,  of 
course,  intended  to  order  the  world  as  it  ought  to  be 
ordered  ;  it  professed  universal  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness as  the  certain  goal.  There  would  be  no  more 
poverty,  no  more  evil,  no  more  misery  in  the  universe, 
if  only  it  were  adopted  ;  and  the  electors,  feeling  the 
annoyances  and  woes  pointed  out  to  be  real  enough, 
and  recognising  the  objects  aimed  at  as  excellent  and 
quite  in  harmonj'  with  their  own  ^-earnings,  eagerlj'' 
adopted  every  such  proposal.  They  did  not  stop  to 
inquire  whether  the  means  were  adequate  to  the  ends, 
or  whether  tbey  would  not  introduce  evils  greater  than 
those  to  be  remedied.  The  actual  existence  of  the 
woes  and  the  magnanimous  motive  were  enough  to 
secure  their  sympathj^  and  an3^one  who  offered  to 
criticise  was  howled  down  as  the  enemy  of  mankind 
and  of  all  progress. 

And,  as  always  happens,  there  arose  a  set  of  poli- 
ticians who  pandered  to  this  passion  with  a  view  to 
their  own  advantage  and  glory.  If  a  scheme,  however 
Utopian,  seemed  likely  to  be  acceptable  to  the  majority 
they  would  trick  it  out  with  one  or  two  special  features 
of  their  own  and  proclaim  it  as  their  own  discovery  ; 
and  all  their  energies  would  be  bent  towards  having  it 
put  in  the  form  of  a  law  on  the  statute-book.  States- 
man after  statesman  rose  on  such  stepping-stones  to 
power  and  fame  ;  and  at  last  it  was  recognised  that 
the  only  way  to  success  in  Wotnekst  was  a  brand  new 
project  for  the  cure  of  all  human  ills. 


Wotnekst  207 

The  first  stage  of  those  panaceas  was  based  on  the 
idea,  natural  to  a  republic,  that  the  suffrage  was  the 
noblest  thing  a  man  could  wish  for.  What  floods  of 
eloquence  were  turned  on  to  the  theme  !  What  pictures 
of  the  happy  state  that  would  ensue  on  each  new  ex- 
pansion of  the  electorate  proposed !  How  cruel  and  in- 
human those  who  opposed  it  !  The  toughest  struggle 
was  the  first  for  the  removal  of  the  most  irrational  of 
all  the  political  disabilities  and  anomalies  that  had 
grown  up  with  the  growth  of  the  communitj'.  If  any 
human  system  remains  untouched  for  a  generation  or 
two  without  any  automatic  power  of  self-adaptation,  it 
becomes  a  caricature  of  justice  and  wisdom  through 
the  growth  of  the  commonweal  to  which  it  is  intended 
to  apply.  The  Wotnekstians  suddenly  awoke  to  find 
the  electorate,  consecrated  by  long  tradition,  a  nest  of 
absurdities  and  wrongs  ;  but  it  took  the  eloquence  and 
ridicule  of  two  generations  of  reformers  to  put  it  right 
and  to  get  the  franchise  extended  to  all  holders  of  a 
certain  amount  of  property.  The  abolition  of  the 
property  qualification  was  a  struggle  only  second  to 
this  in  its  violence.  Then  the  flood  came.  Every  new 
statesman  had  to  rise  to  power  on  some  new  suffrage 
scheme.  From  residence  for  a  year  it  was  brought 
down  to  residence  for  a  month  in  the  conmiutiit3\ 
How  irrational  it  seemed  to  place  any  time  limit  to  the 
acquisition  of  political  interest  and  insight  and  wisdom ! 
Every  limit,  indeed,  could  be  proved  to  be  arbitrary 
and  illogical  ;  and  the  final  step  was  easily  taken  to 
manhood  su0"rage. 

Then  the)'  waited  to  see  the  effect  ;  and  there  grew 
upon  the  people,  first  surprise,  and  then  indignation 
that  all  human  ills  had  not  vanished  from  the  island. 
There  were  poverty  and  crime  and  disease  with  them 


2o8  Riallaro 

still  in  all  their  virulence.  Who  could  be  at  the  bot- 
tom of  this  failure  ?  It  could  not  be  the  patriots  at 
home.  It  must  be  the  foreigner  who  frequented  their 
shores  and  marts.  Then  the  second  stage  of  panacea 
legislation  began.  This  was  occupied  with  taxing  the 
foreign  commerce  of  the  island.  Tariff  after  tariff  was 
passed  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  as  much  blood  as 
possible  from  the  alien  who  came  to  their  harbours, 
without  actualh'  killing  him.  He  was  getting  fat  on 
the  trade  with  their  island.  Increase  the  revenues  out 
of  him,  was  ever  the  crj'.  For  more  and  more  was 
needed  for  the  army  of  guardians  and  inspectors  of  the 
trade  and  for  the  statesmen  who  passed  the  tariffs  and 
their  followers;  all  the  needy  and  the  indolent  amongst 
the  middle  classes  looked  to  the  new  services  for 
their  sustenance.  As  commerce  dwindled  under  the 
burden  of  inspectors  and  tariffs  and  regulations,  the 
demand  for  revenue  increased;  till  at  last  the  harbours 
were  empt)-,  and  the  marts  inhabited  only  by  the  gov- 
ernment officers.  No  politician,  however,  dared  to 
propose  the  reduction  of  this  army  of  idle  inspectors. 

An  ambitious  young  statesman  who  could  not  oust 
his  opponents  or  get  himself  into  office  bethought  him- 
self of  a  new  scheme.  He  knew  what  it  was  that  had 
annihilated  the  commerce  ;  but  the  electorate  would 
not  listen  to  him  if  he  told  them  the  truth  ;  they 
thought  that  it  was  malignant  envy  that  had  driven 
foreign  nations  into  withdrawing  from  the  ports  of  the 
island;  how  could  it  be  Wotnekstian  legislation,  when 
it  had  all  been  meant  for  the  good  of  the  human  race  ? 
But  let  them  go  ;  they  could  do  very  well  without  for- 
eigners. The  5'outh  saw  it  was  vain  to  attempt  to  per- 
suade them  that  their  own  laws  and  tariffs  and  inspectors 
had  made  commerce  impossible  ;    and  he  turned  his 


Wotnekst  209 

attention  to  a  new  stepping-stone  to  power.  In  their 
anxiet}^  to  please  and  conciliate  the  middle  classes  who 
had  achieved  all  the  recent  reforms,  statesmen  had  for- 
gotten the  artisans  and  labourers  ;  and  everybody  as- 
sumed that  in  passing  laws  for  the  benefit  of  employers, 
they  were  conferring  benefits  on  the  employees  too  ; 
their  interests  were  bound  together.  But  this  new 
candidate  for  power  saw  that  the  lion's  share  went  to 
the  middle  classes  and  that  the  interests  of  the  two 
divisions  of  the  community  were  by  no  means  com- 
pletely identical. 

He  sent  his  lieutenants  and  agents  out  amongst  the 
workiugmen  and  wooed  their  confidence  by  urging 
their  grievances,  which  they  suddenly  awoke  to  find 
they  had.  His  emissaries  made  the  artisans  pick 
quarrels  with  their  masters,  and  he  stepped  in  to  settle 
them  ;  but  he  settled  them  in  such  a  wa}^  that  they 
should  be  chronic  ulcers.  He  encouraged  their  dis- 
content and  promised  them  a  position  in  the  common- 
wealth as  good  as  their  masters.  At  intervals  the 
strife  he  provoked  blazed  out  into  open  warfare  ;  and 
he  led  the  crusade.  He  was  execrated  b}-  the  middle 
classes  ;  but  he  did  not  care  for  that  ;  for,  as  soon  as 
he  had  inspired  the  mass  of  the  workingmen  to  act  in- 
dependently of  their  employers,  he  knew  he  would 
carry  the  day. 

And  after  ten  years  of  uphill  struggle  he  came  out 
victorious.  He  had  rent  the  state  in  two  ;  but  he  had 
the  larger  part  behind  him;  and  he  took  every  precau- 
tion to  bind  it  to  him  with  all  the  bonds  of  self-interest 
and  fear.  There  followed  a  long  period  of  legislation 
in  favour  of  the  artisan  and  labourer.  He  drew  his 
revenues  from  a  new  source,  the  penalisation  of  capital. 
Every  man  who  employed  others  with  profit,  or  who 


2IO  Riallaro 

had  any  surplus  from  his  earnings,  was  forced  step  by 
step  to  hand  over  his  profits  or  his  surplus  to  the  state 
or  in  the  form  of  wages  to  the  employees.  Industry 
after  industry  grew  waterlogged  and  sank.  All 
who  were  thrown  out  of  employment  had  to  be  pro- 
vided for  by  the  state  ;  those  vile  emplo^-ers,  through 
hatred  of  labour,  had  in  their  malignity  withdrawn 
their  capital  from  the  industries,  and  many  of  them 
had  gone  abroad  with  it  to  escape  taxation  and  the 
just  laws  that  had  been  passed  to  guide  them  in  the 
employment  of  their  capital. 

The  new  army  of  government  inspectors  and  em- 
ployees who  had  come  into  being  in  order  to  see  the 
labour  laws  carried  out  could  not  be  dismissed  ;  and 
the  government  had  to  take  over  most  of  the  industrial 
enterprises  that  had  been  abandoned.  The  labourers 
learned  with  facility  the  art  of  seeming  to  work  when 
idling  ;  and,  as  they  were  the  masters  through  the 
ballot-box,  it  was  no  one's  interest  to  see  that  they  did 
what  they  were  paid  to  do.  Things  drifted  from  bad 
to  worse  ;  but  the  statesman  put  the  best  face  upon 
them.  Borrowings  from  abroad  at  huge  rates  and 
crooked  accounts  concealed  the  deficit  for  man}'  years. 

At  last  his  rival,  a  younger  and  as  unscrupulous  a 
politician,  advertised  the  disaster  that  was  about  to 
befall  the  state,  and,  though  denounced  as  a  liar  and 
slanderer,  persuaded  half  the  electorate  that  he  was 
not  far  from  the  truth,  especially  as  the  administration 
was  driven  to  all  kinds  of  dubious  shifts  to  pay  their 
emploj-ees  ;  and  a  considerable  section  of  the  labour- 
ing class  looked  to  them  for  work  and  support.  But 
in  the  crusade  against  industrial  capital  and  foreign 
trade  the  landlords  and  mine-owners  had  been  for- 
gotten.    Agricultural  work  and  mining  had  not  been 


Wotnekst  211 

to  the  taste  of  the  Wotnekstians,  and  they  had  allowed 
these  employments  to  drift  into  the  hands  of  introduced 
labourers,  contracted,  or,  in  other  words,  enslaved,  for 
a  number  of  years.  The  owners  kept  as  silent  as  they 
could  and  shut  the  mouths  of  their  foreign  workmen 
by  learning  their  language  and  allowing  them  no  op- 
portunity of  learning  Wotnekstian.  It  was  assumed 
that  they  were  contented  and  happy,  as  no  one  heard 
them  complain,  and  all  outsiders  who  could  understand 
them  were  carefully  kept  out  of  their  way.  They  cost 
little  beyond  their  sustenance  to  their  masters,  who 
avoided  any  show  of  the  wealth  they  were  laying  by, 
and  even  kept  up  the  appearance  of  being  poor. 

The  new  candidate  for  power  was  an  outcast  from 
their  ranks,  and  knew  the  enormous  profits  that  came 
to  them  from  their  lands  and  mines.  He  spoke  with 
authority  when  he  declared  that  he  could  pay  all  the 
expenses  of  administration  without  laying  any  more 
burden  on  the  existing  taxpayers  ;  he  could  in  fact 
remove  many  of  their  taxes,  enrich  the  state  coffers, 
and  give  a  higher  rate  of  wages  to  all  the  employees 
of  the  government.  His  long-successful  rival  made  a 
bold  stroke  for  the  retention  of  power.  He  knew  that 
his  own  special  party,  the  artisans,  had  the  largest 
families,  and  had  therefore  the  largest  number  of  wom- 
en and  young  men  in  their  ranks  ;  and  he  brought 
in  a  bill  extending  the  suffrage  to  women  and  to  youths 
of  sixteen  years  and  upwards.  His  opponent  was  sus- 
piciously eager  to  help  him  in  passing  it;  but  he  could 
not  draw  back  ;  and  it  became  law.  The  result  was  a 
still  more  overwhelming  defeat  for  him  and  his  follow-  • 
ers.  His  rival  had  honeycombed  the  labour  party  with 
disloyalty  by  means  of  promised  bribes. 

Then  began  the  new  system  of  taxation,  which  was 


2  12  Riallaro 

to  draw  all  revenues  from  lands  and  mines.  From  time 
to  time  the  taxes  had  to  be  increased  in  order  to  fill  the 
gulf  that  was  made  by  a  new  addition  to  the  inspector- 
ate. The  owners  had  to  resort  to  a  lower  and  lower 
stratum  of  workers,  who  would  work  for  nothing  and 
whose  food  would  cost  less.  The  proletariate  raised  a 
cry  against  the  introduction  of  such  savages  ;  and  the 
artisans  and  labourers  took  it  up,  and  insisted  on 
native  labour  being  substituted  for  the  aliens.  Strin- 
gent laws  were  passed  excluding  all  aliens  from  the 
island  ;  and  real  poverty  began  to  take  the  place  of 
seeming  poverty  amongst  the  landlords  and  mine- 
owners.  A  few  generations  of  laws  against  foreigners 
and  of  taxation  of  natural  products  ruined  this  milch- 
cow  of  the  state  ;  and  the  end  was  that  all  lands  and 
all  mines  had  to  be  taken  over  from  private  owners. 

Still  there  were  new  stepping-stones  for  youthful 
ambitions  in  politics  to  rise.  One  who  thought  that 
too  many  years  were  passing  without  the  due  recog- 
nition of  his  genius  saw  that  his  only  chance  lay  in 
an  utterly  neglected  section  of  the  electorate.  The 
paupers  and  the  unimprisoned  criminals,  though  long 
enfranchised,  had  been  too  unimportant  to  appeal  to. 
But  state  employment,  state  doles,  and  state  impecuni- 
osity  had  by  this  time  pauperised  half  the  population, 
and  the  half-developed  criminals  had  begun  to  recognise 
in  the  statesmen  and  politicians  brothers-in-arms,  whilst 
the  constant  torrent  of  legislation  had  induced  utter 
contempt  of  all  laws  and  made  most  of  the  people  law- 
breakers. 

Our  young  political  leader  saw  his  opportunity,  and 
knew  that  if  he  propounded  a  scheme  that  would  appeal 
to  both  pauper  and  criminal  he  would  seduce  Wotnek- 
stian  human  nature  and  rise  into  power.     He  proposed 


Wotnekst  213 

to  give  a  competency  to  every  man  and  woman  above 
fifty  who  was  poor  enough  or  idle  enough  to  appeal  to 
the  state  for  sustenance  or  employment.  He  did  not 
reveal  whence  he  would  get  his  revenues  to  carry  out 
his  scheme,  but  assured  the  electorate  with  great  con- 
fidence that  he  would  find  them.  The  semi-criminal 
was  astute  enough  to  see  that  it  was  out  of  his  quiver 
that  the  new  scheme  must  find  its  weapons.  The 
pauper  did  not  care  whence  the  means  came  ;  and  the 
two  combined  put  the  budding  statesman  into  office. 
The  financial  scheme  was  of  course  to  take  from 
those  who  had  saved  and  to  give  to  those  who  had 
spent  their  all  or  had  never  earned.  Anticipating  the 
effect  of  his  measures,  he  passed  a  law  prohibiting 
emigration  from  the  island  ;  and  he  made  the  semi- 
criminal  inspectors  to  see  its  provisions  enforced.  In 
spite  of  increasing  deficits  and  increasing  inability  to 
borrow  from  the  islands  around  even  at  exorbitant 
rates,  statesman  after  statesman  climbed  to  power  by 
reducing  the  age  at  which  a  competency  would  be 
granted,  and  the  age  at  which  a  boy  or  girl  could  begin 
to  claim  electoral  rights. 

Notwithstanding  the  army  of  inspectors  and  the  pre- 
cautions taken,  the  thrift}'  section  of  the  people  who 
did  not  care  to  abandon  work  dribbled  away  one  by 
one  clandestinely  to  neighbouring  islands,  along  with 
their  thrift.  The  wealthy  had  taken  care  to  escape 
long  before  ;  and  the  state  bank,  which  had  gradually 
absorbed  all  other  banks,  had  begun  to  feel  the  limit 
of  its  paper.  Its  chief  reserve  and  plant  had  been  for 
many  years  a  printing-press.  One  ambitious  youth  of 
meagre  intellectual  capacity  had  leapt  into  power  on 
the  preaching  of  the  doctrine  that  the  only  essentials 
of  great  wealth  in  a  country  were  a  good  supply  of 


214  Riallaro 

paper  and  a  good  printing-press;  the  credit  of  the  com- 
munity did  the  rest.  So  thoroughly  did  the  people 
come  to  believe  in  this  that  the  precious  metals  and  the 
movables  of  value  were  allowed  to  drift  out  of  the 
island  along  with  the  rich  or  thrifty  escapees.  They 
were  chary  of  accepting  any  piece  of  government  paper 
in  payment  for  anything  they  did  or  sold,  and  still  the 
people  believed  in  the  inexhaustibility  of  the  wealth 
of  the  state.  Did  not  the  whole  of  the  industries  and 
mines  and  lands  of  the  island  belong  to  it  ?  Issue  of 
paper  followed  issue  of  paper  to  meet  the  increasing 
deficit,  each  growing  of  less  value  and  of  less  accept- 
ance than  the  last.  More  than  half  the  population 
were  government  inspectors,  and  the  rest  were  govern- 
ment pensioners  ;  and  they  had  to  be  paid.  At  last 
there  was  nothing  to  pay  them  with  but  the  state  bank 
paper.  Then  there  was  indignant  protest.  States- 
man after  statesman  in  whom  the  electorate  trusted  to 
pay  them  in  goods  or  the  cash  of  other  islands  was 
hurled  from  power.  Hundreds  of  laws  were  passed 
asserting  the  value  of  the  paper  money  and  refixing  it 
at  its  original  face  value.  Yet  neither  electors  nor 
politicians  would  acknowledge  the  facts  of  the  case, 
that  as  long  as  there  was  no  one  to  work,  there  was 
nothing  to  be  got  to  pay  the  inspectors  and  pensioners. 
There  were  the  mines  and  lands  as  rich  as  eve.r  they 
were  ;  but  there  were  none  to  dig  or  cultivate  them. 
The  alien  labourers  who  used  to  work  them  had  been 
thrust  out,  and  the  natives  had  worked  in  such  a  way 
that  the}'  did  not  earn  their  wages.  There  were  the 
factories  and  industries  ;  but  they  were  silent  and  their 
buildings  were  falling  into  ruin. 

Yet  the  electors  were  convinced  that  it  was  the  poli- 
ticians that  were  at  fault ;  and  the  politicians  had  each 


Wotnekst  215 

his  theory,  which,  if  put  into  practice,  he  was  sure 
would  set  everything  to  rights.  Every  new  statesman 
had  a  new  panacea,  and  when  it  failed  to  pay  the  state 
wages  and  pensions  in  goods,  down  he  went.  Another 
statesman  rose  into  power  and  another  political  nostrum 
was  tried.  Fortunately  for  us  the  last  favourite  theory 
had  been  the  encouragement  of  foreigners.  A  poli- 
tician had  shown  that,  if  commerce  were  encouraged 
and  aliens  invited  to  settle  in  their  midst,  everything 
would  be  right  again  ;  and  his  brief  term  of  oflEice 
covered  our  compulsory  visit  to  Wotnekst.  That  he 
would  fail  was  as  certain  as  that  night  would  follow 
day.  Yet  none  the  less  would  the  whole  people  believe 
that  salvation  was  to  be  found  in  passing  laws  ;  and 
they  would  continue  to  spend  their  days  and  their  ener- 
gies in  arguing  out  new  political  schemes  for  the  return 
of  prosperity,  just  as  they  and  their  ancestors  had  done 
for  generations.  Nature,  meanwhile,  was  kind  enough 
to  save  them  from  actual  starvation  ;  her  wild  roots 
and  fruits  were  free  to  all,  and  in  ordinary  seasons 
gave  them  bare  subsistence  the  j'ear  round.  But  when 
in  one  of  her  violent  or  barren  moods  she  refused  them 
food,  then  famine  and  ultimately  plague  blotted  out  bj' 
tbe  thousand  the  less  vigorous  amongst  these  believers 
in  the  omnipotence  of  legislation.  The  survivors,  as 
soon  as  they  gathered  strength  to  talk  and  argue,  be- 
gan to  hammer  out  a  new  scheme  for  putting  the  state 
and  the  state  bank  and  the  state  industries  and  state 
lands  and  mines  on  a  sound  footing.  If  the  passing  of 
laws  did  not  bring  them  prosperity  and  happiness,  then 
they  were  certain  that  nothing  would. 

Such  was  the  outline  that  Sneekape  gave  me  of  the 
history  and  character  of  the  Wotnekstians  ;  but  it 
seemed  such  a  caricature  of  human  nature  that  I  half 


2l6 


Riallaro 


suspected  he  was  playing  off  a  jest  on  me.  He  saw  my 
hesitation  and  he  assured  me  on  oath  that  he  was 
speaking  the  truth.  His  oaths  had  never  impressed 
me  much,  and  I  tell  you  his  story  for  what  it  is  worth. 
That  a  whole  people  should  so  insanely  believe  in  the 
omnipotence  of  legislation  is  beyond  credit.  That  a 
whole  people  should  adopt  such  foolish  schemes,  and 
on  their  failure  continue  to  forge  and  put  into  practice 
similar  schemes  would  strain  the  most  primitive  cred- 
ulity. But  that  any  nation  could  bring  themselves 
to  think  that  the  encouragement  of  idleness  and  un- 
thrift  would  lead  to  anything  else  than  leaving  them  to 
the  mercy  of  the  moods  of  Nature  was  indeed  a  jest  too 
patent  to  impose  on  me. 


CHAPTER  XX 


FOOIvGAR 


THE  adjacent  island  over  which  we  had  to  pass 
made  me  almost  regret  our  departure  from  Wot- 
nekst.  It  was  a  low,  marshy,  rich-soiled  island  that 
did  not  bulk  into  the  appearance  of  land  till  we  were 
almost  half-way  across  the  straits.  A  few  knolls,  like 
a  row  of  buttons,  ran  across  it  and  gave  it  the  appear- 
ance at  first  of  a  thread  of  minute  islets  strung  rosary 
fashion.  They  were  each  topped  with  either  a  house 
or  a  group  of  houses  that  as  we  approached  stood  out 
amid  groves  of  trees  against  the  sky.  A  nearer  view 
made  the  island  even  picturesque  ;  streams  and  brooks 
flashed  in  and  out  across  the  low  terraces  that,  mead- 
owed  and  treed,  broke  the  slope  downwards  to  the 
shore. 

When  we  reached  the  surf,  there  was  no  one  to  be 
seen  ;  but  for  the  cultivated  aspects  of  the  centre,  we 
should  have  said  that  the  island  was  uninhabited.  We 
shot  through  the  broken  water  at  the  mouth  of  a  stream, 
and  ran  up  its  channel  as  far  as  the  shallows  would 
permit.  We  moored  our  boat  and  made  for  a  little  vil- 
lage that  nestled  at  the  foot  of  one  of  the  hills  ;  but 
we  could  not  get  anyone  to  speak  to  us.  I  thought 
that  they  were  all  deaf,  till  Sneekape  demonstrated  the 

217 


2i8  Riallaro 

contrary  ;  one  to  whom  we  spoke  went  like  the  others 
past  us,  his  nose  turned  skywards  ;  my  companion  at 
once  imitated  with  his  tongue  the  twanging  of  a  bow- 
string and  the  whizz  and  cloop  of  an  arrow  that  enters 
wood;  the  figure  first  cowered  and  then  ran,  and  when 
at  a  safe  distance  glanced  furtivel}'  round. 

We  left  the  islander  to  recover  from  his  fright  and 
turned  into  what  seemed  a  shop  in  the  long  street. 
Here  we  experienced  wholly  different  treatment.  We 
made  extensive  purchases  of  personal  clothing  and  ex- 
changed our  absurd  Meddlarian  guise  for  this.  Our 
appearance  was  now  less  like  that  of  circus  clowns. 
And  something  in  our  gait  and  manner,  something 
perhaps  imperious,  changed  the  sullen  irresponsiveness 
of  the  shopman  into  the  most  obsequious  attention. 
He  rubbed  his  hands  and  bowed  before  us  and  antici- 
pated our  every  wish.  He  grew  servile  and  cringing  ; 
and  Sneekape  fooled  him  to  the  top  of  his  bent.  He 
got  the  whole  of  the  goods  of  the  shop  turned  out  upon 
the  tables  ;  he  objected  to  everything,  or  showed  the 
loftiest  contempt  for  the  services  and  eagerness  of  the 
capering,  bowing  salesman  ;  he  ordered  this  or  that  in 
the  loudest  and  vulgarest  of  tones,  and  the  man  danced 
attendance  on  him  all  the  more  abjectly.  I  stood  by 
and  wondered  at  the  change  from  the  haughty  churlish- 
ness to  the  supple  servility.  It  came  about  after  and 
not  before  we  had  made  our  purchases  and  donned 
them.  In  spite  of  the  trouble  that  Sneekape  had 
given  to  the  clothier,  he  bought  nothing  more,  and  yet 
was  bowed  out  of  the  shop  with  the  most  fawning  of 
smiles. 

We  entered  another  at  the  upper  end  of  the  street  ; 
and  our  reputation,  or  rather  Sneekape' s,  had  preceded 
us  ;  for  we  experienced  the  same  sycophantic  court. 


Foolgar  219 

The  attendants  bowed  us  in  and  offered  us  seats  with 
bent  eyes  and  gracious  smiles.  We  wished  something 
to  eat  and  drink,  and  my  guide  gave  his  orders  with 
the  same  insolent  parade  and  pompous  voice  that  he  had 
assumed  in  the  garment  store.  It  was  indeed  amusing 
to  see  how  the  shopmen  bustled  about  and  smirked  and 
bowed  to  his  every  command.  I  knew  that  there  must 
be  another  section  of  the  islanders  who  indulged  freely 
in  the  manner  Sneekape  had  assumed  —  lond,  ov^er- 
bearing  tones,  inflated  contempt,  and  supercilious 
swagger. 

I  had  not  long  to  wait  for  a  specimen.  A  female 
islander  sailed  into  the  eating-shop  with  an  elevation 
of  her  nose  and  chin  that  would  have  annihilated  a  less 
impudent  man  than  my  fellow-traveller.  I  sat  in  my 
corner  and  watched.  She  assumed  the  most  complete 
oblivion  of  our  existence,  although  we  sat  right  in 
front  of  her.  A  minute  had  elapsed  before  any  one  of 
the  attendants  had  perceived  her  entrance.  She  an- 
swered his  eager  and  servile  inquiries  as  to  her  wishes 
by  freezing  silence  ;  she  still  held  her  nose  in  the  air 
far  above  mere  terrene  interests.  He  offered  her  a 
seat,  and  after  a  time  she  bent  her  rigid  frame  and 
majestically  rested.  He  then  retired  into  the  back- 
ground crushed.  When  she  had  settled  her  dress  and 
airs,  a  trumpet  note  of  the  loudest,  most  contemptuous 
kind  recalled  him  to  her  side,  and  he  knelt  down  be- 
fore her  and  apparently  begged  her  pardon  and  the 
knowledge  of  her  wishes  ;  she  ordered  like  a  drill 
sergeant.  When  the  food  and  drink  came,  there  was 
a  comparative  lull  ;  nothing  but  the  sound  of  her 
instruments  and  jaws  for  five  minutes. 

Sneekape  outswaggered  her  ;  he  paraded  with  proud 
strut  from  side  to  side  of  the  shop  and  trumpeted  his 


220  Riallaro 

orders  into  general  space  till  the  whole  of  the  attend- 
ants buzzed  round  him  like  a  swarm  of  bees,  leaving 
the  high-toned  engulfer  of  viands  in  solitar}^  state. 
Even  the  clatter  of  her  plate  and  spoon  seemed  to  sub- 
side. It  was  as  when  a  rooster  in  full  crow  in  the 
middle  of  the  barnyard  on  a  sudden  hears  another 
crow  more  lustily  within  a  few  yards  of  him  ;  with 
wings  depressed  and  feeble  strut  he  collapses  and  seeks 
a  safe  corner  ;  whilst  the  partlets  range  around  the 
newcomer.  He  knew  the  human  nature  he  had  to  deal 
with,  that  coarse,  swaggering  fibre  of  would-be  aristo- 
cracies that  is  on  one  side  bully  and  on  the  other 
craven.  There  was  an  almost  subdued  tone  of  appeal 
in  the  lady's  voice  when  she  next  addressed  the  shop- 
man ;  and  she  sidled  out  worsted  and  crestfallen. 

There  was  a  buzz  of  interest  around  us  as  we  in- 
quired our  way  to  the  main  town,  and  traversed  it. 
The  story  of  Sneekape's  lordly  airs  and  voice  had  pre- 
ceded us.  Great  court  was  paid  us  b}'  those  who  were 
evidently  members  of  the  trading  class,  whilst  the 
labourers  assumed  a  peculiar  rigidity  of  body,  their 
usual  method  of  showing  respect  to  a  superior.  The 
few  of  the  lordly  class  we  came  across  passed  us  by 
with  a  prolonged  stare  that  seemed  as  if  it  would 
investigate  the  internal  machinery  of  our  bodies. 

We  had  not  got  far  into  the  streets  of  the  town, 
when  an  elaborately  arra)'ed  flunke}'  gleaming  in  pur- 
ple and  gold  stopped  us  with  a  servile  genuflection  and 
besought  us  in  the  name  of  Soma  and  Sama  Deloorna, 
the  latter  of  whom  had  met  us  in  the  eating-shop,  to 
do  them  the  honour  of  resting  at  their  house.  We  had 
nothing  else  to  do,  and  Sneekape  in  his  most  lordly 
manner  bade  the  lackey  lead  the  way. 

We  entered  a  fortified  courtyard,  surrounded  by  low 


Foolgar  221 

houses,  evidently  the  dwelling-places  of  the  menials  of 
the  household.  Across  it,  we  reached  a  showy  portal 
whose  doors  opened  with  a  suddenness  that  was  over- 
awing. We  were  bowed  in  from  lackey  to  lackey 
through  a  gloomy  and  pompous  hall,  and  were  at  last 
ushered  into  a  great  room  that  was  almost  grotesque  in 
its  equipment.  Everywhere  were  sculptured  or  painted 
forms  of  men  and  women  in  their  burial-dress,  the 
ghastly,  lustreless  gaze  of  the  dead  upon  their  faces. 
Around  each  were  gathered  what  were  evidently  the 
favourite  relics  of  the  original,  here  a  hunting-whip, 
there  the  skins  or  feathers  of  wild  animals,  here  a 
skull  mounted  as  a  drinking  cup,  there  the  mummified 
feature  of  some  animal  or  human  being.  It  was  a 
great  museum  of  the  dead,  perhaps  the  ancestry  of  the 
household.  Above  each  figure  was  stuck  what  seemed 
a  heraldic  emblem,  wreathed  in  the  folds  of  some  white 
cloth,  brocaded  with  gold  ;  and  in  front  of  it  what 
might  be  a  little  altar,  a  shallow  cup  on  it  that  steamed 
and  smoked  with  smouldering  fragrance. 

After  a  delay  of  an  hour  or  more  our  hostess  entered 
with  great  bustle  and  retinue.  She  apologised,  so  I 
was  afterwards  told,  for  not  having  shown  in  the  shop 
the  courtesies  of  Foolgar  to  so  distinguished  strangers. 
It  was  Sneekape  she  meant  ;  for  she  turned  to  him  and 
bowed  and  smirked  and  acted  most  graciously  to  him 
in  her  majesty.  She  was  not  massive  ;  yet  the  per- 
formance was  like  that  of  an  elephant  condescending  to 
a  minuet.  My  companion  was  equal  to  the  occasion, 
and  trumpeted  forth  as  lordly  apologies,  bowing  as 
graciously.  He  began  with  distant  references  to  his 
far-back  ancestry,  astutely  introducing  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  names  of  Riallaro  ;  he  made  large 
draughts  on  his  imagination,   he  afterwards  acknow- 


222  Riallaro 

ledged  to  me,  when  he  was  elevating  himself  at  the 
expense  of  the  Foolgarians  b}^  showing  me  how  he 
laughed  at  them.  For  she  too  had  entered  on  the 
imaginative  task  of  out-ancestoring  him.  The  contest 
was  evidentl}'  a  very  keen  one  ;  for  the  two  bridled 
up  to  new  hauteur  at  intervals.  I  did  not  understand 
the  conversation  ;  j^et  I  could  see  the  drift  of  it  in  the 
gestures  and  interplay  of  emotion  on  the  faces. 

It  ended  in  another  victory  for  my  guide,  as  I  could 
see  by  the  obsequious  manner  in  which  she  now  treated 
him,  in  spite  of  the  presence  of  her  menials  who  had 
come  to  announce  the  approach  of  her  lord.  This 
great  red-headed  lout  bent  himself  low  before  each  of 
the  funereal  figures  on  the  one  side  of  the  room  as  he 
came  up.  I  afterwards  learned  that  these  were  his  an- 
cestors. Then  with  a  stiff  majesty  that  ill  suited  his 
swollen  pompous  figure  he  approached  us  and  bowed. 
He  was  the  coarsest  specimen  of  humanity  I  had  ever 
seen.  If  he  was  proud  of  his  ancestry  it  was  difficult 
to  understand  how  there  could  be  any  reciprocity  in 
the  feeling,  should  their  spirits  be  conscious.  He  had  a 
huge,  ill-cut  chasm  for  a  mouth,  even  larger  than  Sneek- 
ape's,  and  the  thick  lips  would  never  fulfil  their  orig- 
inal purpose  of  concealing  the  amorphous,  unsightly 
teeth  and  the  processes  of  salivation  and  speech, — two 
processes  that  were  ever  in  foamy,  spluttering  contest. 
He  would  insist  on  stretching  the  slit  to  its  full  elas- 
ticity by  wearing  a  sickly,  patronising  smile  ;  and  the 
rust3'-red  hair  sprawled  over  various  sections  of  his 
face,  and  failed  to  conceal  what  it  might  have  con- 
cealed with  advantage.  The  sections  it  left  exposed 
to  view  were  measly  with  freckles  and  new  artistic 
patterns  in  terra-cotta. 

Still  he  held  himself  with  the  personal  vanity  of  an 


Foolgar  223 

Adonis  ;  and  it  would  not  be  hard  to  conceive  him  d}'- 
ing  of  love  of  his  own  reflection,  like  Narcissus  in  the 
myth.  Yet  he  was  so  substantial  that  the  process 
would  have  to  be  spread  over  years,  if  not  centuries. 

He  knew  Aleofanian,  and  he  prelected  to  me  with 
the  condescension  of  a  god  on  the  greatness  of  his  ances- 
tors. It  was  the  dreariest  infliction  I  had  ever  borne  ; 
but  he  would  allow  no  interruption,  and  with  consid- 
erable diplomacy  he  turned  the  flank  of  Sneekape's 
endeavours  to  try  a  fall  w'ith  him.  He  had  me  all  to 
himself  ;  whilst  his  wife  abased  herself  before  my  com- 
panion, he  made  up  for  the  abasement  by  a  truly 
pavonine  strut  and  spread  of  his  feathers. 

Amongst  the  few  items  of  fact  that  floated  on  the 
torrent  of  his  imagination  were  these:  the  name  of  the 
island  was,  translated,  the  Land  of  Lofty  Lineage,  and 
there  were  none  amongst  them  whose  ancestry  did  not 
trace  back  to  some  god  ;  their  history  covered  myriads 
of  centuries  ;  and  no  race  on  the  face  of  the  earth  or 
even  in  the  heavens  above  could  compare  with  them  in 
ancientness  or  nobility  ;  ah,  thej'  were  the  most  un- 
fortunate of  men,  so  lonely  in  their  majestic  isolation, 
there  being  none  in  the  universe  with  whom  they  could 
deal  on  an  equal  footing. 

The  thought  took  him  up  into  regions  whither  ordi- 
nary mortals  evidently  could  not  follow.  The  gross 
features  were  as  near  transfiguration  as  they  could 
ever  be.  I  was  glad  to  be  ignored  or,  at  least,  unad- 
dressed,  during  his  reverie  on  the  solemn  grandeur  of 
his  solitude  in  the  universe,  glad  to  feel  I  was  too  in- 
significant for  his  loft}'  notice.  He  strutted  with  a  low, 
cooing  chuckle  as  if  he  were  superintending  the  hatch- 
ing of  a  world. 

Sneekape  jerked  him  out  of  his  trance  as  with  a 


2  24  Riallaro 

lasso.  He  used  an  epithet  which,  he  afterwards  told 
me,  implied  in  these  islands  the  obliteration  of  ances- 
try, what  would  be  considered  nihilism  in  Foolgar.  It 
was  like  a  whip-stroke  to  the  bovine  frame.  He 
writhed  as  if  stung.  His  persecutor  followed  up  the 
interjection  with  a  stream  of  eulog3^  of  his  own  ances- 
tors, piling  in  heroes  and  gods,  till  the  lineage  over- 
shadowed all  mortal  heraldrj'.  The  keeper  of  the  great 
ancestral  museum  and  saint-.shop,  in  which  we  were, 
fell  at  the  feet  of  his  braggart  visitor,  prostrate.  He 
had  been  outboasted,  and  grovelled  before  this  surpass- 
ing artist  in  heraldic  imagination  and  in  the  vulgarities 
on  which  he  so  prided  himself. 

He  gave  us  a  retinue  wherever  we  went  throughout 
the  islands,  and  feted  us  every  day,  till  we  grew  sick 
of  his  unwholesome  attentions.  He  looked  as  if  he 
would  lick  the  ground  over  which  Sneekape  walked. 
A  man  with  so  great  a  lineage  and  such  lordly  airs  and 
voice  must  be  made  nuich  of. 

Sneekape  had  still  a  wicked  twinkle  in  his  eye.  He 
gave  the  gorgeous  servants  of  our  host  a  high-sounding 
embassy  to  return  with,  and  then  led  me  awa}-  through 
b5'-lanes  into  an  unpretentious,  if  not  squalid,  section 
of  the  town.  We  stopped  before  what  I  would  have 
called  an  ancient  temple  ;  it  looked  outside  as  if  worn 
by  the  weather  of  centuries,  and  it  was  clothed  with 
their  filth  too.  It  had  upon  its  pediment  a  huge  in- 
scription in  letters  of  gold,  and  this,  according  to 
Sneekape's  interpretation,  meant  :  "  Honour  thy  fore- 
fathers ;  they  circulate  in  thy  veins  and  guide  thy  life  ; 
there  is  no  godhead  equal  to  theirs."  A  feeling  of 
solemnity  crept  over  me,  as  we  stepped  into  the  antique 
portico  of  what  was  the  oldest  shrine  of  ancestry  wor- 
ship in  the  archipelago.    All  round  there  were  evidences 


Foolgar  225 

of  primitive  customs  and  relics  of  olden  times  ;  and, 
in  spite  of  the  filth  and  dust  of  ages,  worshippers 
in  rich  robes  knelt  or  moved  about  with  anxious  looks 
upon  their  faces.  I  supposed  that  they  were  waiting 
for  admission  to  the  inner  temple,  though  they  had  a 
skulking  gait,  seemed  to  try  to  avoid  recognition,  and 
had  their  hoods  drawn  over  their  faces.  Kvery  few 
minutes  men  with  villainous  low  brows,  whom  I  took 
from  their  official  robes  to  be  attendant  priests,  came 
out  of  the  great  folding-doors  and  had  conference  with 
one  or  other  of  the  hooded  figures  in  confidential 
whispers. 

My  curiosity  was  deeply  excited  ;  for  the  service  was 
evidently  proceeding  ;  even  in  the  street  as  I  ap- 
proached the  building  I  could  hear  the  hubbub  of 
adoration,  and  when  the  door  opened  the  babel  of 
voices  suppliant  or  hortative  burst  upon  our  ears  in 
deafening  tumult.  Sneekape  approached  an  attendant 
and  after  much  haggling,  during  which  I  saw  several 
times  the  half-concealed  passage  of  coin  from  palm  to 
palm,  he  seemed  to  succeed  in  his  requests.  We  were 
soon  threading  our  way  along  devious  and  dark  pas- 
sages ;  I  stumbled  frequently  ;  but,  after  escaping 
many  risks  of  accident,  we  found  ourselves  again  out- 
side of  a  door  that  smothered  the  devotional  riot  with- 
in; and  in  another  moment  we  had  plunged  into  the 
tempestuous  ocean  of  devotees. 

It  was  some  time  before  I  collected  my  wits  suffi- 
ciently to  observe  the  centre  of  the  scene  ;  it  was  a 
huge  priest  in  official  robes  standing  in  a  raised  pulpit 
with  two  subordinates  seated  beside  him  writing  in 
books  and  a  bevy  of  acolytes  buzzing  hither  and  thither 
around  the  dais.  He  was  shouting  almost  continuously 
with  stentorian  lungs  that  must  have  needed  the  full 


226  Riallaro 

capacity  of  his  huge  chest  to  contain.  He  had  a  hammer 
in  his  hand  and  with  this  he  pointed  in  various  directions 
throughout  the  congregation  as  he  exhorted  or  chided, 
besought  or  encouraged  ;  and  ever  and  anon  a  sound- 
ing blow  of  the  mallet  on  his  desk  would  still  the  babel 
for  a  moment,  while  the  buzzing  acolytes  rushed  hither 
and  thither  bearing  new  documents  or  inscriptions  that 
were  evidently  portions  of  the  sacred  writings. 

I  looked  round  at  the  sea  of  faces  upturned  in  wor- 
ship, and  I  thought  I  had  never  seen  such  a  villainous 
collection  outside  of  a  criminal  court.  It  was  little 
wonder  that  the  priest  had  to  exert  himself  so  frantic- 
ally, if  he  were  to  make  any  religious  impression  on 
such  a  crowd.  Their  countenances  belied  them  if  they 
did  not  stand  sorely  in  need  of  his  exhortations.  The 
officiant  was  now  ready  with  another  portion  of  script- 
ure, an  inordinately  long  scroll;  and  around  in  niches 
behind  him  had  been  placed  by  the  acolytes  a  row  of 
mild-faced  images  that  I  took  to  be  a  collection  of 
minor  deities,  evidently  of  one  family ;  for  there  was  a 
strong  likeness  in  the  countenances  of  all  of  them. 
Again  the  tumult  of  devotion  rose  ;  I  felt  scared  by  its 
importunacy  and  reflected  that  no  god  would  dare 
to  disregard  such  a  deafening  invocation  ;  but  the 
priest's  voice  rose  above  it  like  thunder  in  a  temp- 
est. He  appealed  to  them  in  bovine  tones  and  with 
postulant  gestures  ;  he  exhibited  his  script  and  read 
portions  aloud  for  their  benefit  ;  he  turned  back  to  the 
images  and  seemed  to  laud  them  to  heaven  ;  and  ever 
and  again  he  jerked  out  some  appeal  to  the  assembly, 
gesturing  wildly  with  his  mallet  ;  and  responses  to  his 
litany  came  now  from  one  worshipper  and  now  from 
another.  As  the  scene  proceeded,  the  service  seemed 
to  narrow  itself  to  three  officiants,  the  priest  in  his 


Fool 


gar  227 


pulpit  and  two  somewhat  lordly-looking  worshippers, 
whose  faces  I  could  not  at  first  see.  The  interchange 
of  appeal  and  reply  was  like  a  fusilade,  so  rapid  and 
sharp  was  it ;  and  ever  and  anon  the  acolytes  held 
up  an  image,  or  raised  the  long  strip  of  manuscript  in 
the  air.  The  suppressed  excitement  in  the  assembly 
grew  intense.  Not  a  sound  was  heard  but  the  voices 
of  the  three  officiants,  that  of  the  priest  in  the  pulpit 
predominating. 

A  crisis  was  evidently  approaching,  the  threefold  lit- 
any crackling  out  upon  the  blank  silence  like  thunder 
on  the  depth  of  midnight.     I  was  conjecturing  what 
would  be  the  climax,  when  the  mallet  rapped  with  a 
sharp  click  on  the  desk,  and  the  acolytes  bore  off  the 
images  and  the   manuscript.      One   of  the   response- 
givers  turned  around  and  his  face  was  dark  and  trou- 
bled as  a  tumultuous  sea  under  the  shadow  of  a  cloud. 
With  excited  gestures  and  rising  intonations  the  wor- 
shippers bustled  out  ;  a  fierce  quarrel  was  manifestly 
on  foot,  there  being,  I  could  see,  two  contending  sects 
present ;  face  turned  to  face  with  darkening  scowl  and 
arrested  threat.     Religious  fervour  had  changed  into 
virulent   bigotry  ;    and   the  narrow  space  within  the 
temple  seemed  to  accentuate  the  suppre.ssed  volcanic 
fire,  to  judge  by  the  fierce,  dark  faces  all  hieroglvphed 
by  the  passions  of  a  murderous  past  ;  there  was  blood- 
shed in  store  for  the  two  divisions  of  the  church.     We 
did  not  follow  them;  but  before  long  we  could  hear 
m  the  neighbourhood  the  furious  cries  of  a  sanguin- 
ary contest  with   a   fringe   of  feminine   wailing"  and 
screeching. 

Siieekape  drew  me  aside,  and,  when  the  crowd  had 
thinned  off,  we  went  into  what  seemed  a  huge  ware- 
house in  the  rear  of  the  temple.    Here  were  great  rows 


228  Riallaro 

of  images  and  countless  rolls  of  manuscript  ;  and  the 
attendants  were  taking  from  the  hands  of  hooded  fig- 
ures other  images  and  rolls.  M}'  guide  took  me  into  a 
still  corner,  and  told  me  that  this  was  a  pedigree  pawn- 
shop we  had  entered,  and  that  the  scene  we  had  just 
witnessed  was  an  auction  of  ancestors.  The  great 
temple  of  ancestral  worship  had  been  povertj'-stricken 
till  it  had  recognised  the  signs  of  the  times  and  ceased 
to  prohibit  with  its  ban  the  secret  but  long-established 
traffic  in  lineage  throughout  the  island  and  archipelago. 
The  ever-progressive  extravagance  and  impoverish- 
ment of  old  families  had  led  to  its  necessary  consequence, 
an  ancestry  exchange,  where  for  a  consideration  a 
new  favourite  of  fortune  could  acquire  an  ancestry  with 
its  good  name  and  titles  and  its  resultant  social  posi- 
tion and  prestige.  It  is  true  the  commodity  was  en- 
cumbered with  a  few  stones  of  human  flesh  in  the  shape 
of  a  daughter  of  the  family  whom  the  newl}'  enriched 
or  his  son  had  to  marry,  or  in  the  shape  of  a  son  to 
whom  he  had  to  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  ;  but 
there  was  discount  for  that,  and  he  could  soon  get 
clear  of  the  encumbrance  by  divorcing  it  to  some  other 
island.  There  was  generally  a  higgling  of  the  market 
according  as  there  was  more  suppl)^  or  more  demand 
all  over  the  archipelago.  The  mothers  and  fathers 
of  the  old  families  prided  themselves  on  their  bar- 
gaining skill  ;  they  drew  from  the  aspirant  the  more 
coin,  the  more  the\'  disparaged  himself  and  his  fore- 
father; if  they  could  make  him  out  a  blackguard,  so 
much  the  better  bargain  could  they  drive.  Most  ro- 
mantic stories  were  told  of  great  fortunes  being  made 
out  of  such  a  sale  through  the  employment  of  detectives, 
who  found  out  the  scoundrelism  of  the  buyer's  past. 
The  church  had  for  centuries  considered  the  traffic 


Foolgar  229 

as  a  desecration  of  the  ancestral  worship  that  it  cher- 
ished, and  frowned  upon  it  ;  and  the  consequence  was 
that  it  was  itself  sunk  in  poverty  and  neglect.  But  a 
generation  before,  a  great  ecclesiastical  genius  arose, 
who  saw  the  possibilities  of  the  practice,  and  blessed  it 
instead  of  cursing  it.  He  organised  it  into  a  regular 
business  over  which  the  priests  presided.  He  estab- 
lished the  famous  ancestral  pawnshop  behind  the  an- 
cient temple  and  extended  its  operations  through  the 
whole  archipelago.  At  fixst  the  priests  kept  the  com- 
merce semi-private  so  as  to  save  the  feelings  of  the  old 
families  ;  but  most  of  these  latter  had  no  compunc- 
tions about  the  haggling  for  a  price  and  pressed  the 
church  officials  more  and  more  eagerly  and  openly  to 
make  a  good  bargain  for  them.  After  a  time  the 
business  became  so  large  and  open  that  an  auction  was 
established  in  the  temple  ;  and  bidders  gathered  from 
all  parts  of  the  archipelago.  The  growth  of  commerce 
and  the  rise  of  new  families  to  wealth  at  first  overtook 
the  supply  and  then  out  distanced  it.  An  old  family 
name  and  pedigree  was  one  of  the  dearest  of  commod- 
ities and  re-enriched  impoverished  households.  Still 
some  of  them  shrank  from  the  publicity  of  the  auction 
and  pawnshop  of  ancestry  and  came  thither  with  their 
proposals  hooded  and  unrecognisable.  The  church  and 
then  the  individual  priests  grew  rapidly  in  wealth; 
and  their  increasing  taste  for  luxury  demanded  larger 
and  still  larger  income.  They  established  agencies  in 
the  other  islands,  and  at  last,  to  meet  the  demand,  set 
up  a  great  pedigree  factory. 

Our  next  visit  was  to  this.  One  department  of  it 
printed  off  the  long  strips  of  parchment  with  fictitious 
records  of  lineage,  the  earlier  part  of  it  in  ancient  let- 
ters and  language  and  stained  with  the  marks  of  age. 


230  Riallaro 

Another  department  manufactured  images,  and  artistic- 
ally chipped,  cracked,  and  sullied  them  into  true  relics 
of  antiquity.  It  was  indeed  difficult  to  distinguish  the 
old  models  from  the  new  imitations  ;  and  I  was  not 
•surprised  to  hear  that  the  buyers  of  the  brand  new  ped- 
igrees held  their  heads  as  high  as  those  who  had  to  pay 
ten  times  as  much  for  a  well-known  ancestr}'  and  titles. 
The  priests  alone  knew  the  difference,  and  it  was  their 
interest  to  keep  it  secret,  and  preserve  the  skill  in 
distinguishing  true  from  false  as  a  trade  mystery. 
Sneekape  told  me  afterwards  that  it  was  the  rarest  of 
all  privileges  to  get  admission  to  the  factory'  of  lineage. 
He  had  great  personal  influence  with  one  of  the  chief 
priests  and  considerable  pecuniar}^  influence  over  the 
subordinates.  We  were  both  sworn  to  secrecy  over 
the  sacred  writings  and  b}^  ceremonies  that  were 
meant  to  overawe  us.  I  cannot  say  that  I  felt  much 
inclined  to  reveal  anything  I  saw,  so  ordinary  did  it 
seem  to  me. 

What  impressed  me  most  deeply  was  the  auction  in 
the  temple.  I  had  never  encountered  any  instance  so 
bold  and  unconcealing  of  a  practice,  common  to  all 
peoples,  yet  usuall}'  hidden  under  a  thousand  different 
fine  names  and  subterfuges.  The  scene  engraved  itself 
upon  my  memor}',  the  priestly  auctioneer  crying  up 
his  goods,  and  the  wild,  dark-faced  assembly  of  bidders, 
loudly  competitive.  I  was  soon  led  to  understand  that 
it  had  been  an  auction  to  be  remembered  even  b}'  a 
people  accustomed  to  such  scenes.  The  ancestry  had 
been  that  of  one  of  the  most  famous  families  in  the 
archipelago,  a  family  of  statesmen,  reformers,  divines, 
and  philanthropists,  once  of  enormous  wealth,  now 
reduced  to  what  was  comparative  povert}^  in  that  age 
of  luxury.     There  was  attached  to  the  title  and  lineage 


Foolo^ar  231 


o 


the  condition  that  the  purchaser  should  marry  the  only 
female  representative,  a  beautiful  and  gentle-hearted 
young  girl  ;  and  the  condition  had  this  time  given 
enhanced  value  to  the  pedigree.  It  drew  bidders  from 
all  portions  of  the  archipelago  ;  but  amongst  them  it 
soon  came  to  be  generally  whispered  about  that  no 
one  had  any  chance  against  two  notorious  corsairs  of 
Broolyi,  who  had  lately  retired  from  the  overt  pursuit 
of  their  profession  with  huge  fortunes  and  bought  great 
estates  and  castles  in  the  island.  The  hooded  figures 
in  the  portico  had  been  the  sellers  hovering  about, 
awaiting  the  result.  At  first  the  other  bidders  kept 
up  the  running;  but  the  price  soon  overleapt  the  re- 
sources of  all  but  the  two  pirates,  who  had  each  a  force 
of  his  old  sailors  and  followers  ready  to  carry  out 
what  his  purse  might  not  be  able  to  do.  I  had  seen 
the  conclusion  of  the  matter  as  far  as  the  temple  was 
concerned  ;  but  the  true  conclusion  had  to  be  reached 
by  the  aid  of  knives  in  the  open  air.  I  protested 
against  the  fate  of  the  young  lady,  who  would  have  to 
pass  her  life  with  her  piratical  purchaser;  but  Snee- 
kape  and  his  friends  on  the  islands  only  laughed  at 
such  a  mistaken  view  of  a  provision  of  nature.  Kro- 
k3'a  (the  successful  corsair)  had  paid  his  full  price  ; 
never  had  any  lot  had  such  a  good  market  ;  the  old 
family  was  set  on  its  legs  again ;  the  girl  was  supremely 
happy  ;  for  she  would  have  everything  that  money 
could  purchase;  and  her  husband,  though  he  still  had 
interests  in  several  piratical  craft  that  were  doing  a 
handsome  business  in  the  archipelago,  had  thoroughly 
reformed,  and,  having  settled  down  to  the  life  of  a  re- 
spectable citizen,  was  worthy  of  the  best  pedigree  he 
could  purchase.  He  would  now  move  about  wath  his 
head  high  in  the  most  aristocratic  circles  of  the  best 


232  Riallaro 

islands,  and  where  could  any  girl  find  a  better  match  ? 
Her  people,  it  seems,  held  high  festival  over  the  result 
of  the  auction  ;  for,  although  they  had  bartered  away 
the  good  name  of  the  family,  they  had  restored  its  for- 
tunes. What  nobler  thing  could  religion  have  done 
for  ancestors  than  to  provide  them  with  an  organised 
and  respectable  means  of  raising  the  family  out  of  the 
slough  of  poverty  and  misfortune,  and  attaching  them- 
selves to  a  new  and  successful  family  ?  The  church 
had  shown  itself  a  true  philanthropist  in  thus  acting  as 
intermediarj^  between  ancestried  poverty  and  ignoble 
wealth. 

After  this  explanation  and  defence  of  the  system,  I 
was  anxious  to  return  to  the  temple  and  watch  another 
auction  ;  and  as  a  large  number  of  small  pedigrees 
were  to  be  sold,  the  scene  was  sure  to  be  interesting 
and  varied.  To  me  it  was  from  one  point  ludicrous, 
from  another  sad.  The  officiant  priest,  evidently  using 
phrases  that  he  had  used  thousands  of  times  before, 
stirred  the  competitive  eagerness  of  the  audience. 
"  Here  we  have  one  of  the  finest  commodities  I  have 
ever  submitted  in  this  temple  ;  look  at  the  length  of 
the  pedigree  ;  roll  it  out  before  the  gentlemen  ;  show 
them  the  great  names  that  occur  in  it  ;  call  out  the 
lateral  connections  of  the  family  with  the  greatest  fam- 
ilies of  the  archipelago.  Now,  gentlemen,  let  Us  have 
a  bid;  the  opportunity  will  never  recur;  I  have  clients 
behind  here  in  the  pignorative  warehouse  who  have 
been  pressing  me  to  submit  it  to  private  sale  ;  why,  I 
could  have  sold  it  twenty  times  over  since  the  family 
put  it  into  my  hands  ;  but  I  determined  that  the  pub- 
lic, my  old  and  faithful  clients,  should  have  the  first 
offer.  A  hundred  pounds!  Come,  come,  you  are  jok- 
ing.    Let  us  begin  with  two  hundred.    You  think  this 


Foolgar  233 

is  a  pedigree  from  the  isle  of  socialists.  I  tell  you  it  is 
from  the  greatest  country  in  the  archipelago,  from 
Aleofane.  Now  look  at  the  images  of  the  ancestors. 
Here  is  one  who  alone  is  worth  the  money.  He  has 
got  the  lineaments  of  a  god,  and  his  life  is  written  in 
the  annals  of  the  country.  Just  hold  up  this  image  to 
the  gentlemen.  This,  you  can  see,  is  the  face  of  a  philo- 
sopher, thought  in  his  every  wrinkle,  wisdom  in  the 
stoop  of  his  shoulders,  lofty  meditation  in  the  gaze  of 
his  brooding  eyes.  Pass  on  to  the  next  in  the  row  ; 
who  cannot  see  in  his  bold  front,  stern  mouth  and 
chin,  and  high  cheek-bones  the  lines  of  a  successful 
warrior  ?  Victory  is  written  over  his  face  and  mien  ; 
and,  if  you  look  into  the  features,  you  will  see  in  the 
scars  upon  his  face  the  map  of  his  innumerable  battle- 
fields. Now,  gentlemen,  you  can  never  be  ashamed 
of  a  lineage  like  this.  What !  Only  ten  pounds  more  ! 
No,  no  ;  I  must  have  twenty-pound  bids.  And  the 
lady  who  owns  this  lineage  is  a  goddess  in  beauty  and 
gait.  Why,  if  I  were  not  so  old,  I  would  unfrock  me 
of  my  priesthood,  and  bid  for  the  pedigree  myself,  so 
fair  and  so  divine  is  she.  No,  no,  it  would  be  sacrilege 
to  let  it  go  for  such  a  paltry  sum."  I  could  make  out 
some  of  this  now  from  his  gestures,  aided  by  my  know- 
ledge of  the  temple  and  its  trade;  and  Sneekape  eked 
out  my  conjectures  by  his  running  translation.  The 
pedigree  was  knocked  down  for  coin  equivalent  to  our 
thousand  pounds  to  a  chimney-sweep  who  had  made  a 
fortune  by  extracting  some  valuable  chemical  from  the 
soot.  Now  that  he  had  a  pedigree  and  an  estate,  he 
became  a  transmuter  of  fire-products,  and  he  after- 
wards moved  in  the  best  social  circles  of  the  archipel- 
ago. My  guide  slily  drew  me  up  towards  the  images 
and  manuscript  as  they  passed  out,  and  showed  me  that 


234  Riallaro 

they  had  been  amongst  the  most  recent  production  of 
the  factor5\  Where  the  priests  got  the  divine  lady  at- 
tached to  them,  he  said  he  could  not  explain.  Perhaps 
this  was  their  method  of  disposing  of  undowried,  uu- 
ancestored  girls.  It  revealed  at  least  the  source  of 
the  vast  and  increasing  wealth  of  the  temple. 

Up  till  this  experience  of  mine,  I  had  thought  that 
they  had  no  public  religion  ;  each  household,  it  had 
seemed  to  me  at  first,  had  its  own,  and  worshipped  its 
ancestors  with  the  usual  outward  devotion  and  inward 
freedom.  They  cared  little  for  the  character  of  those 
they  worshipped,  whether  good  or  bad,  and  called  only 
that  divine  in  them  which  fitted  tbeir  own  desires  and 
passions.  There  were  amongst  them  all  the  evils  of 
inbreeding,  intensified  by  its  being  in  the  sphere  of 
religion  ;  thej^  were  tortured  with  morbidit}'  and  other 
diseases  of  the  spirit,  such  as  a  sort  of  moral  epilepsy, 
and  spiritual  anaemia.  The  worst  malady  amongst 
them  was  that  which  made  them  seem  insane  to  the 
other  inhabitants  of  the  archipelago, — intellectual  wry- 
neck and  tip- nose;  they  could  never  look  at  any  thing 
or  person  without  getting  their  perspective  twisted  by 
a  vision  false  or  true  of  some  far-back  past  ;  they  were 
ever  craning  their  necks  back  to  an  ancestry  generally 
fictitious,  or  lifting  their  noses  high  above  someone 
who  did  not  trouble  himself  about  whether  he  had  any 
or  not. 

My  guide  had  neither  the  conscience  nor  the  honour 
to  feel  any  scruples  about  taking  advantage  of  their 
weakness.  He  trumpeted  and  strutted  in  a  more  and 
more  lordlj^  and  vulgar  way,  till  the  Foolgarians,  ar- 
moured though  they  were  in  genealogies  that  reached 
farther  back  than  the  creation ,  licked  the  dust  off  his  feet. 
If  they  had  not  been  such  mean  bullies  and  parasites 


Foolgar  235 

themselves,  I  should  have  been  sorry  for  them,  so  heart- 
lessly did  he  trample  upon  their  most  sacred  treasures 
and  feelings.  His  ancestral  references  were  as  fictitious 
as  most  of  theirs  ;  but  they  were  magnificent  lies, 
brazened  out  irrespective  of  human  weaknesses.  Poor, 
lank  body  though  he  had,  he  managed  to  give  it  an 
appearance  of  volume  by  bulging  his  chest  and  raising 
his  nose  in  the  air  and  stamping  his  feet  on  the  ground ; 
and  by  some  means  I  never  discovered  he  changed  his 
low  nasal  voice  into  a  bovine  trumpet-note,  with  which 
he  outbullied  the  loudest  lineage  braggartry  of  the 
Foolgarians.  The  meaner  side  of  human  nature  was 
gratified  to  see  these  pompous  pretenders  and  bullies 
biting  the  dust  before  one  of  their  own  kin  and  reveal- 
ing so  plainly  how  natural  to  them  was  the  other  side 
of  their  nature,  cowardice  and  fawning.  He  was  their 
supreme  god  for  a  day  or  two. 

Yet  he  knew  that  the  charm  would  not  work  long, 
and  that,  when  they  discovered  how  like  he  was  to 
themselves  as  an  artist  in  genealogical  fiction,  they 
would  turn  and  rend  him.  He  chose  the  very  top  of 
the  wave  of  devotion,  and  we  made  a  triumphal  exit, 
our  canoe  full  of  all  manner  of  dainties  and  luxurious 
foods.  To  the  last  they  kept  their  cringing  attitude 
Long  after  we  had  shot  over  the  bar  and  put  to  sea,  we 
could  discern  their  bodies  bending  to  the  ground  as  in 
an  act  of  worship. 

Sneekape  laughed  loud,  when  we  had  got  out  of  ear- 
shot and  eyeshot.  I  did  not  join  in  the  outburst  ;  the 
spirit  of  coarse  mockery  and  triumph  by  means  of  de- 
ceit was  even  worse  than  the  mixture  of  bullying  and 
grovelling  we  had  just  seen.  He  was  evidently  much 
surprised  and  tried  to  explain  the  jest  to  me.  He  said 
that  these  islanders  were  the  butt  of  the  archipelago  ; 


2^6 


Riallaro 


the  meanest  laughed  at  them  for  the  lordl}''  airs  they 
assumed,  and  when  his  people  were  in  lack  of  a  good 
laugh  or  jest,  they  organised  an  expedilion  to  Foolgar, 
taking  with  them  some  comedian,  who  would  by  his 
outlording  their  lordliness  bring  all  to  the  dust-kissing 
stage  of  fawning.  It  was  the  happy  hunting-ground 
of  practical  jokers,  and  they  seldom  failed  to  raise  some 
good  game,  so  mad  were  the  islanders  with  the  itch  for 
ancestr}'.  The  usual  translation  of  its  name  through- 
out the  archipelago  was  the  Isle  of  Snobs. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


AWDYOO 


HE  saw  at  last  that  I  had  httle  sympathy  with  the 
part  he  had  assumed  ;  and  with  a  wily  insight 
and  versatilit}'  he  snaked  himself  round  into  a  con- 
fidential conversation  on  our  next  step.  He  told  me 
that  he  was  glad  we  had  come  off  so  well-laden  with 
provisions  ;  for  he  wished  to  avoid  the  next  islet  in  the 
chain,  Awdyoo,  or  the  isle  of  journalism  ;  it  was  the 
foulest  place  on  the  earth,  and  no  one  ever  landed  there 
who  could  avoid  it. 

It  was  the  quarantine  station,  whither  all  the  scribo- 
maniacs  were  deported.  Every  island  but  Aleofane 
had  used  it  as  an  asylum  for  those  who  were  afflicted 
with  the  desire  to  address  their  neighbours  in  writing 
or  type  concerning  their  neighbours'  affairs  and  char- 
acters. In  Aleofane  the  government  controlled  and 
utilised  the  morbid  state  of  mind  for  the  advantage  of 
the  governors.  In  other  islands  it  was  lamented  and 
guarded  against  as  one  of  the  foulest  of  contagious  dis- 
eases ;  once  it  had  taken  root  in  a  community,  thej^ 
knew  there  was  no  eradicating  it  except  by  the  most 
wholesale  exile.  It  generally  caught  the  meanest  and 
most  malignant  natures,  too,-  and  turned  them  into 
moral  sewers.     They  would  not  let  the  affairs  of  their 

237 


238  Riallaro 

neighbours  alone,  and  stirred  up  every  mud  pool  until 
it  became  offensive  ;  and,  when  they  could  not  find 
anything  in  the  shape  of  scandal  or  foible  or  quarrel, 
they  had  to  manufacture  ;  so  they  filled  the  citizens' 
minds  with  lies  about  each  other,  and  with  cues  of  at- 
tack or  offence.  They  fomented  bad  blood,  and  in- 
fected the  whole  community  with  every  spiritual  disease 
that  could  possibly  approach  it.  There  was  no  lunacy 
that  Riallaro  so  greatly  feared  as  that  of  journalism,  it 
was  so  disgusting  and  so  swiftly  spreading  an  epidemic 
of  the  mind.  Every  man  who  was  touched  with  it  came 
to  fancy  himself  absolved  from  all  laws  of  courtesy, 
honour,  and  morality;  he  assumed  that  he  was  practic- 
ally omniscient,  and  whosoever  dared  to  question  this 
assumption  had  to  be  pursued  to  the  death  with  his 
most  envenomed  and  deadliest  weapons,  malice,  slan- 
der, ridicule,  misrepresentation,  impudence,  lies.  They 
had  all  agreed  at  a  conference  many  centuries  before 
that  there  were  no  such  dangerous  madmen,  and  that 
their  mental  disease  spread  more  quickly  than  a  plague. 
They  had  therefore  fixed  on  Awdyoo,  one  of  the  most 
isolated  of  the  islets,  as  the  hospital  for  this  epidemic  ; 
and  whoever  showed  any  symptoms  of  it  in  any  island 
was  deported  thither. 

The  place  had  become  a  complete  pandemonium  in 
these  centuries.  The  inhabitants  had  substituted  phys- 
ical means  of  attack  for  their  old  spiritual  weapons, 
for  every  one  of  them  had  grown  so  thick-hided  from 
perpetual  attack  of  the  others  that  the  foulest  charges 
fell  lightly  on  them.  They  laughed  to  scorn  the  most 
irritating  slanders  and  lies  and  banter  and  mimicry, 
the  favourite  methods  of  their  journalism.  So,  to  re- 
lieve their  feelings,  they  had  to  translate  their  moral 
and    intellectual    warfare    into    physical.      And    the 


Awdyoo  239 

weapons  they  used  were  the  physical  equivalents  of 
their  old  journalistic  methods  of  attack;  they  had  great 
air-guns,  from  which  they  shot  various  mixtures  more 
or  less  glutinous;  if  they  found  someone  they  wished  to 
parasite,  it  was  butter  ;  if  they  had  a  rival  or  neighbour 
to  quarrel  with  and  blacken,  it  was  ink  ;  other  prepar- 
ations were  paste  variously  coloured  and  stench-gener- 
ative, filth  highly  granulated  with  pebbles,  and  the 
extract  of  cuttlefish  mingled  with  the  poisons  of  various 
plants  and  animals.  Their  missiles  were  not  absolutely 
lethal  ;  they  were  only  noisome  and  inconvenient  until 
washed  off.  They  were  made  into  minute  pellets  with 
a  hard  gelatine  shell,  so  that  they  made  no  commotion 
in  the  olfactory  nerves  till  broken.  Even  those  they 
wished  to  honour  were  incommoded  by  the  streams 
of  butter  that  soon  streaked  their  clothes  and  face. 
Honour,  flattery,  from  them  was  almost  as  little  desired 
as  their  hostile  attacks  ;  and  it  was  one  of  the  islands 
which  no  one  visited  unless  under  a  stern  sense  of  duty 
or  the  incitement  of  some  heroic  mood  or  from  accident. 
Yet  they  were  thoroughly  convinced  that  they  were 
the  arbiters  of  all  reputation  in  the  world.  If  they 
laughed,  mankind  trembled  and  were  sick.  If  they 
threatened,  the  orb  shook.  If  they  approved,  posterity 
accepted  their  verdict  and  threw  up  their  caps  in  ap- 
plause. A  nod  or  a  frown  from  them  had  as  great 
effect  as  a  thunder-storm  or  an  earthquake.  Their  fiat 
was  immortal,  even  though  they  should  immediately 
contradict  it,  as  they  generally  did.  Their  respect  for 
principles  and  facts  and  truths  continued  as  long  as 
these  continued  to  support  their  conclusions  and  be- 
liefs; and  then  the  alliance  was  broken ;  they  considered 
that  no  loyalty  was  due  to  things  that  were  disloyal  ; 
it  was  a  case,  then,  of  internecine  warfare  ;  veiled  in 


240  Riallaro 

great  professions  of  respect  and  devotion  for  the  enemy, 
if  only  it  would  cease  to  be  hostile.  Their  treatment 
of  persons  was  based  on  the  same  ideal  of  rights  ;  om- 
nipotence was  not  to  be  trifled  with  ;  omniscience  was 
not  to  be  questioned. 

What  was  their  religion  ?  It  was  the  Veiled  Ego. 
They  believed  that  the  only  true  way  of  making  divine 
was  by  mystification.  Hide  the  average  personality 
under  namelessness  and  mystery,  and  you  give  it  the 
attributes  of  godhead  ;  its  utterances,  however  feeble, 
gather  strength  from  the  secrecy  of  their  source,  and 
seem  to  come  from  the  mouth,  if  not  from  the  heart,  of 
mankind.  The  primary  article  of  their  creed  was  this  : 
a  voice  from  behind  any  veil,  however  tawdry  or  foul, 
becomes  the  voice  of  the  people  ;  and  the  voice  of  the 
people  is  the  voice  of  God.  Every  man  of  them,  there- 
fore, had  become  a  god  ;  and  it  was  his  object  to  bring 
the  rest  of  the  world  to  worship  at  his  shrine,  or  sheet, 
behind  which  he  ever  concealed  himself  He  believed 
it  was  only  a  matter  of  time,  when  the  whole  universe 
would  fall  at  his  feet.  Meantime  his  fellows  on  his 
own  island  had  to  be  subdued  to  the  true  faith  ;  and 
his  whole  time  was  spent  in  warfare  and  the  invention 
of  new  forms  of  attack,  especially  of  ambush.  He  was 
filled  with  complete  faith  in  the  righteousness  and  ultim- 
ate triumph  of  his  cause,  and  was  ever  asserting  that 
truth  will  prevail,  at  the  very  moment  that  he  was 
manufacturing  fiction  and  stench  pellets  for  the  con- 
version of  his  neighbours  and  the  salvation  of  their 
souls.  By  truth  he  meant  his  own  deliverances.  For 
the  gist  of  his  creed  was  this:  "  There  is  no  god  but  I, 
veiled  under  We,  the  essence  and  sum  of  all  created 
beings  ;  and  I,  veiled  under  We,  is  his  prophet." 

I  had  become  so  deeply  interested  in  his  account  of 


Awdyoo  241 

Awdyoo,  and  he  in  his  narrative,  that  we  had  not 
noticed  a  dark  band  round  the  horizon  broaden  and 
gradually  obliterate  the  islets.  A  cold  effluence  from 
it  had  crept  over  us  to  the  effacement  of  our  compass 
and  landmarks.  The  mist  soon  closed  and  shut  out 
the  sun  and  sky,  and  then  we  knew  not  where  we  were 
or  w^hither  we  headed.  We  dared  not  move  lest  we 
should  drift  far  from  both  land  and  our  course.  We 
had  only  to  throw  ourselves  passively  into  the  bottom 
of  the  canoe  and  await  a  change.  Sneekape  was  evid- 
ently much  moved,  and  did  not  add  to  my  cheerful- 
ness by  telling  me  that  these  mists  were  frequent  and 
long  around  Awdyoo  ;  and  that  they  were  brought 
about  by  the  everlasting  hail  of  gelatinous  missiles 
that  rayed  forth  stench  when  burst. 

Two  nights  fell  upon  us  starless,  like  the  walls  of 
a  prison,  and  still  the  mist  rose  not.  Our  provisions 
would  not  last  mau)^  days  ;  but  we  felt  that  the  boat 
and  the  sea  were  drifting  under  us,  or  that  the  mist 
was  floating  swifth'  over  us.  It  must  have  been  about 
midday,  when  my  companion  started  from  his  prostrate 
position,  and  put  his  hand  to  his  nose.  "It  's 
Awdyoo,"  he  exclaimed  with  bated  breath.  He  knew 
it  by  the  indescribable  medley  of  smells  that  floated 
over  the  islet  as  from  a  thousand  chemical  factories, 
and  he  fancied  that  their  repertory  of  missiles  must 
have  greatly  enlarged  since  his  last  approach  to  it. 
There  was  a  new  variety  in  the  fetid  redolence  of  the 
atmosphere.  If  all  the  putrescent  waters  and  heaps 
of  the  world,  all  its  assafoetida  and  noisome  plants,  and 
all  its  polecats  and  skunks,  had  been  gathered  into  one 
centre,  and  all  the  exhalations  from  them  turned  into 
one  nozzle,  the  result  would  have  been  aromatic  and 

balmy  beside  this  mephilic  stench.     It  was  not  alone 
16 


242  Riallaro 

the  nose  that  it  invaded,  but  every  sense  and  pore  of 
the  body  ;  the  whole  of  our  human  system  seemed  to 
be  mastered  by  the  olfactory  section  of  it.  We  longed 
for  one  sniff  even  of  the  crater  of  Klimarol. 

Graduall}-  the  sense  of  smell  got  partially  paralysed, 
and  a  smart  grating  sound  shivering  through  the  frame- 
work of  our  canoe  recalled  our  mental  force  to  eyes  and 
ears.  The  current  was  bearing  us  over  a  sand-bank, 
and  we  could  see  a  dim,  low  line  as  of  land  beyond. 
We  rose  in  frenzy  to  our  oars,  and  pushed  off ;  and  the 
current  bore  us  past  several  tongues  of  land,  and  then, 
it  seemed,  out  into  deep  water.  We  spent  hours  in  the 
struggle  before  it  succeeded.  Happily  the  veil  was 
close  drawn  over  the  whole  scene.  But  it  was  now 
near  noon,  and  the  strength  of  the  midday  sun  began 
to  penetrate  the  thick  gossamer  of  floating  moisture. 
In  a  brief  time  the  whole  pall  lifted,  and  we  saw  the 
island  lying  at  a  safe  distance,  j-et  near  enough  to  show 
us  the  inhabitants  and  their  occupations.  It  looked  as 
if  they  had  all  hung  out  a  very  dirty  washing  to  dry  ; 
for  there  flapped  in  the  light  wind,  that  had  rent  the 
veil  of  mist,  hundreds  of  long  sheets  that  had  once  been 
white.  Out  from  behind  them  peeped  the  nozzles  of 
air-guns  and  of  men  and  women,  and  back  and  forward 
darted  various  forms  of  familiar  animals^  whose  appro- 
priate noises  we  could  still  hear  in  the  distance.  My 
companion  explained,  with  a  smile  at  my  mistaken 
conjecture,  that  these  sheets  were  their  entrenchments, 
behind  which  thej^  were  nameless  and  secret,  that  on 
them  they  printed  threats  and  challenges  and  abuse  for 
the  benefit  of  rivals  and  enemies  ;  and  when  anyone 
approached  they  poured  forth  a  shower  of  stench 
pellets  upon  him,  or  chased  him  in  the  disguise  of  some 
animal. 


Avvdyoo  243 

One  by  one  they  saw  us  ;  and  a  howl  of  execration 
rose  from  them  and  gathered  force  as  they  collected 
into  a  crowd.  There  was  evidently  great  excitement  ; 
we  had  still  one  long  spur  of  land  to  pass,  though 
happily  at  a  distance.  They  galloped  with  all  their 
following  and  their  artillery  towards  it.  It  was  a  nar- 
row escape  for  us.  We  had  jvist  shot  past  it  into 
deeper  water,  when  they  arrived  at  its  point  and  set 
their  guns  in  order.  The  pellets  fell  short  ;  but  as 
they  struck  the  water  they  broke  and  infected  the  air 
with  putrescence.  One  unfortunately  touched  the 
gunnel  and  bespattered  Sneekape  ;  and  he  acknow- 
ledged that  they  must  have  invented  some  new  odours 
surpassing  for  their  strength  and  noisomeness.  Yet, 
as  the  current  and  wind  drifted  us  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  raining  stenches,  it  was  almost  a  pleasure  to  have 
only  the  offensive  fetor  of  my  companion's  hair  and 
clothes  near  me.  We  lowered  the  islet  into  a  thin  line 
by  distance  ;  then  we  could  see  them  scatter  like  in- 
sects to  their  various  sheets  ;  and  night  sheltered  us 
soon  with  its  cool  neutrality  of  perfume.  My  odorous 
mate  had  dipped  himself  again  and  again  into  the  sea 
and  wrung  himself  out,  till  at  last  only  a  faint  reminis- 
cence of  the  polecat  hung  about  him.  It  was  faint 
enough  to  let  me  listen  to  his  diverting  chatter  as  we 
drifted.  He  assured  me  that  the  current  would  bear 
us  of  itself  to  the  uext  islet  in  the  chain. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


JABBEROO 


BETWEEN  it  and  Awdyoo,  but  farther  to  the  north 
than  the  current  was  likely  to  carry  us,  lay  a 
group  of  islands  that  Sneekape  declared  would  have 
been  as  good  as  a  play  to  see.  He  entertained  me  with 
an  account  of  them  as  we  drew  away  from  the  odours 
of  Awdyoo.  I  listened  with  reserve  of  judgment  ;  for 
his  story,  as  usual,  sounded  like  fiction  ;  and  I  had  no 
means  of  testing  it.  It  was  interesting  enough,  and 
drew  my  mental  energy  from  my  nose  to  my  ears.  I 
knew  afterwards  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of  truth  at 
the  basis  of  it,  ev^en  though  the  tricky,  airy  manner 
made  me  doubt  the  whole  of  it.  The  nearest  of  the 
group  to  Awdyoo  was  called  Jabberoo,  and  seemed  to 
be  the  inferno  of  talkers.  Hither  were  bani.shed  all 
who  had  become  insufferable  for  their  loquacity.  For 
a  time  it  was  said  to  have  been  the  silentest  island  in 
the  archipelago,  such  an  effect  had  the  encagement  of 
so  many  praters  in  one  place  upon  the  disposition  of 
each.  They  had  all  been  so  enamoured  of  the  sound 
of  their  own  voices  that  they  could  not  bear  to  hear 
anyone  else  speak ;  that  was  the  disease  for  which  they 
had  been  quarantined;  and  it  looked  as  if  this  drastic 
step  of  exile  was  about  to  be  an  effectual  cure  of  it. 

244 


Jabberoo  245 

Once  the  patients  from  the  dijfferent  islands  realised 
that  Jabberoo  was  nothing  but  a  huge  garrulity  hospi- 
tal, they  howled  with  rage  and  found  a  certain  distrac- 
tion in  airing  their  grievance  to  one  another.  Each 
tested  the  listening  power  of  every  other  inhabitant  of 
the  island,  and,  finding  that  it  was  no  greater  than  his 
own,  settled  down  into  sullen  taciturnit3^  Not  even 
the  variety  of  dialects  in  which  they  spoke  gave  them 
anj^  consolation ;  the  babel  only  intensified  their  horror 
and  disgust  at  being  cooped  up  with  men  and  women 
as  passionately  fond  of  babble  as  they  were.  Every 
talk  they  started  became  almost  at  once  a  competitive 
duologue  ;  the  two  voices  rose  into  a  shout  that  made 
hearing  the  words  an  impossibility.  Not  one  of  them 
could  bear  to  see  his  neighbour  begin  to  talk;  he  knew 
he  could  not  get  a  word  in  except  bj'  main  force  of 
lung,  and  he  dared  not  risk  the  torrent  of  babble.  The 
first  few  days  on  land  left  them  hoarse  and  exhausted  ; 
and  thereafter  the}^  muzzled  their  passion  and  went 
about  mute  as  fish.  Mariners  and  boatmen  avoided 
the  shores  of  the  island  after  a  time  ;  for  those  that 
landed  at  first  were  almost  torn  to  pieces  by  the  Jab- 
beroon  mob,  each  eager  to  secure  a  good  listener  ;  and 
even  if  any  arrival  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  only 
one  Jabbaroon  and  be  monopolised  by  him  in  secret,  he 
was  glad  to  make  his  escape,  lest  he  should  turn  into  a 
pillar  of  salt  under  the  infliction  of  fluency  ;  the  only 
successful  means  of  flight  was  to  bear  the  torrent  till 
the  darkness  of  night,  slip  out  of  his  upper  garments 
which  his  buttonholer  held,  and  leave  in  his  place  a 
wooden  substitute.  The  sullen  silence  had  been  no 
cure  of  the  disease  after  all. 

A  benevolent  Swoonarian  took  pity  on  the  wretched 
islanders  and  invented  an  automatic  listener.     But,  like 


246  Riallaro 

all  the  inventions  of  his  people,  it  came  to  nothing. 
In  theory  it  seemed  as  if  it  would  work.  He  made  a 
figure  in  human  form  with  a  sensitive  word-repeater 
inside  it  that  at  certain  sounds  could  by  internal 
mechanism  set  it  swaying  and  gesticulating,  as  if  in 
high  nervous  excitement.  It  could  be  wound  up  for  a 
whole  day,  or  in  some  of  the  more  expensive  specimens 
even  for  a  whole  week.  As  it  heaved  and  swung 
about,  one  would  have  said  that  it  was  a  real,  human 
listener  moved  by  the  eloquence  of  a  speaker  ;  but 
the  shipment  failed.  Superior  though  the  automatic 
audience  was  to  most  human  beings  in  responsiveness 
and  emotional  endurance,  something  was  wanting;  the 
look  of  suppressed  despair  on  the  face,  the  irritable  at- 
tempts at  interjection,  and  the  iinavailing  efforts  to 
escape.  The  inventor  intended,  if  this  venture  had 
succeeded,  to  add  those  movements  to  his  figures;  but 
unfortunately  the  first  purchasers  lost  their  tempers 
over  the  monotonous  acceptance  of  all  they  said  and 
the  repetition  of  the  gestures  and  attitudes  as  they 
repeated  their  favourite  phrases  ;  they  grew  frantic 
with  rage  and  smashed  the  whole  consignment  to 
pieces. 

It  looked,  indeed,  at  one  time  as  if  the  community  of 
Jabberoons  would  go  furiously  mad  for  want  of  good 
listeners,  and  commit  suicide  in  a  body  ;  but  a  mis- 
sionary arriv^ed  from  a  neighbouring  island,  called 
Tubberythumpia,  or  the  island  of  demagogues  ;  and 
though  his  sufferings  often  rose  to  torture  at  first,  he 
knew  from  experience  in  his  own  land  how  to  endure 
them.  In  the  end  he  conquered  ;  he  was  able  to 
get  a  word  in  now  and  again  ;  and  this  occasional 
word  won  its  way  by  slow  degrees  into  the  brains  of 
the  Jabberoons  and  bore  fruit.     They  listened  to  the 


Jabberoo  247 

gospel  of  the  newcomer  once  a  week  or  so,  and  resolved 
to  adopt  the  new  evangel  of  alternation  of  eloquence. 
They  organised  themselves  into  councils,  assemblies, 
senates,  conferences,  synods,  mob  meetings,  boards, 
election  meetings,  parliaments,  cabinets,  conclaves, 
chambers,  convocations,  congresses  consistories,  diets, 
juntas,  comitias,  directories,  commissions,  sanhedrims, 
and  committees,  so  that  every  man  and  woman  was  a 
member  of  forty  or  fifty  of  these  bodies  and  could  at- 
tend the  meetings  of  two  or  three  dozen  of  them  every 
day.  They  adopted  it  as  a  basis  of  their  new  constitu- 
tion that  only  one  was  to  speak  at  once  in  any  sitting, 
and,  whenever  two  began  to  speak  together,  it  was 
thereby  dissolved.  It  is  quite  true  that  there  were  dis- 
solutions every  hour  of  the  day;  but  some  speaker  had 
had  his  say  out,  and  those  who  were  disappointed  in 
getting  an  escape-valve  for  their  tongue  energy  had 
plenty  of  other  meetings  to  attend,  where  they  might 
have  a  chance  of  evacuating  their  own  particular  sec- 
tion of  the  dictionary. 

The  plan  was  a  miraculous  success  for  a  time.  It 
saved  the  Jabberoons  from  universal  frenzy  and  suicide. 
Every  one  of  them  was  able  to  get  off  half  a  dozen 
eloquent  speeches  every  day  to  an  audience  more  or 
less  unwilling,  but  that  had  by  the  constitution  of  the 
country  to  listen  ;  and  it  was  easier  for  them  to  keep 
the  mouth  shut  when  they  knew  that  they  too  would 
have  their  chance  before  long.  They  worked  just 
enough  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door  ;  and  then  all 
the  rest  of  the  time  was  given  up  to  those  delightful 
meetings  and  conferences,  where  each  felt  that  he  could 
make  others  hear  the  sweet  sound  of  his  voice.  They 
never  settled  anything  of  any  importance  to  anybody; 
but    they    felt    that    the   existence    of  the   universe 


248  Riallaro 

depended  on  their  oratory.  To  satisfy  themselves  they 
discussed  every  possible  topic  that  had  occurred  or 
could  ever  occur  tc  any  human  mind,  and  they  passed 
resolutions  upon  it  to  send  on  to  other  meetings  and 
conferences  and  assemblies.  B}^  the  time  these  reso- 
lutions had  got  through  the  various  bodies  and 
come  back  to  the  originators,  they  had  become  so 
transformed  as  to  be  unrecognisable,  and  so  bewild- 
ering in  their  labyrinth  of  clauses  and  amendments 
as  to  be  beyond  human  intelligence;  but  they  were 
recommitted  and  recreated  and  again  sent  on  their 
career  of  transformation.  They  kept  the  jaws  work- 
ing and  the  tongues  wagging.  And  ever}'  ambiguity 
introduced  served  the  same  national  and  benign 
purpose. 

With  all  this  development  of  eloquence  and  elabor- 
ation of  counsel,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  Jab- 
beroo  was  the  best  governed  country  in  the  world. 
Ever}'  citizen  worked  the  clack-mill  night  and  day  for 
the  good  government  and  guidance  of  everj^  other 
citizen.  Nothing  could  surpass 'the  earnestness  and 
enthusiasm  of  the  whole  community  in  pounding  out 
the  arguments  for  and  against  everj'  possible  .course 
that  any  member  or  section  of  it  might  take  in  life. 
They  were  in  danger  of  starving,  so  busy  were  they  in 
deliberation  over  the  questions,  how  everj^  man  should 
earn  his  food,  how  he  should  cook  his  food,  how  he 
should  eat  it,  and  how  he  should  dispose  of  his  surplus. 
They  had  not  time  to  drink,  so  strenuous  in  their 
tongue  exertions  were  they  over  what  to  drink  and 
what  not  to  drink.  The}'  left  their  children  to  run 
naked,  and  their  own  clothes  to  fall  into  rags,  whilst 
they  discussed  the  best  kind  of  cloth  for  different 
weathers  and  climates,  and  the  best  form  of  garments 


Jabberoo  249 

for  various  ages,  and  the  best  way  of  wearing  gar- 
ments. No  people  in  the  world  had  ever  held  so 
many  deliberations  and  consultations,  or  ever  spent  so 
much  eloquence  and  wisdom  over  the  proper  way  of 
bringing  up  a  family  ;  meantime  every  family  was 
allowed  to  tumble  up  in  the  best  way  it  could,  till  the 
momentous  questions  were  settled.  Never  was  there 
a  nation  that  so  strove  to  get  at  the  highest  ideal  of 
government  as  the  Jabberoons  did  in  meeting  and  con- 
ference and  assembly ;  and  never  was  there  a  nation  so 
devoid  of  all  pure  government  or  even  co-operation  for 
their  own  internal  administration  or  their  defence. 
There  was  nothing  they  would  not  do  in  their  speeches 
on  behalf  of  their  country,  so  fiery  were  they  in  their 
patriotism;  but  when  a  pirate  landed  with  a  small  boat- 
load of  men,  there  was  not  a  Jabberoon  to  be  seen 
within  shooting  distance,  and  once,  when  a  mad  dog 
was  let  loose  on  the  beach,  the  silence  and  solitude  of 
the  island  could  be  felt. 

For  himself,  Sneekape  asserted  that,  if  the  Jabberoo 
women  were  worth  a  thought,  he  would  land  and  walk 
off  with  the  whole  of  them  ;  but  they  had  such  pre- 
dominant and  huge  mouths  and  such  pestilential 
tongues  that  no  ordinary  human  nature  could  endure 
them.  Their  recent  developments  under  the  Tubbery- 
thumpian  missionary  had  made  their  shores  safe  for 
strangers  to  visit;  but  for  his  part  he  would  keep  at  a 
safe  distance  from  such  a  nation  of  magpies.  He  could 
not  endure  the  endless  chatter  of  a  prating,  gossipy 
woman.  He  preferred  her  with  a  good  stormy  channel 
between  him  and  her. 

The  latest  development  of  their  commonweal  had 
again  made  landing  dangerous.  Their  tongue-courage 
had    grown  too   mild    for   the  expression   of  all  they 


250 


Riallaro 


felt.  Argument  and  eloquence  had  given  way  to 
vituperation  and  insult,  and  their  meetings  now  gen- 
erally ended  in  free  fights.  Scratched  noses  and 
cracked  crowns  had  become  the  natural  accompaniment 
of  political  fervour. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

VULPIA 

THE  only  chance  of  restraining  and  correcting  these 
furious  scenes  of  debate,  and  preventing  them  from 
ending  in  complete  annihilation  of  the  Jabberoons,  was 
to  turn  the  inhabitants  of  a  neighbouring  island  loose 
upon  them.  These  were  the  Vulpians,  exiles  from  the 
rest  of  the  archipelago  for  over-astuteness  in  diplomacy. 
They  were  hated  by  the  Jabberoons  as  the  most  deadlj^ 
enemies  the}'  could  encounter  ;  for  they  exploited 
their  loquacious  neighbours  in  the  most  heartless  and 
shameless  way.  For  years  they  had  been  almost  en- 
raged at  the  simplicity  with  which  these  orators  fell 
into  their  snares.  They  would  go  over  in  troops,  and 
each  fleece  his  man  of  all  his  goods,  if  not  of  his  wife 
and  daughters,  without  making  him  feel  anything  but 
gratitude  at  his  friendship  and  patronage.  Time  after 
time  these  expeditions  had  gone  unsuspected.  These 
wily  flatterers  would  insinuate  themselves  into  the 
good- will  of  the  Jabberoons  and  leave  them  naked,  and 
yet  with  the  sense  of  having  received  unmeasured 
favours  and  advantages.  They  fooled  their  victims  to 
the  top  of  their  bent,  applauding  their  feeblest  gabble 
as  matchless  eloquence  and  persuading  them  by  their 
attitude  of  admiration  and  their  ambiguous  phrases  that 

251 


252  Riallaro 

they  had  only  to  go  out  into  the  world  to  have  it  at 
their  feet.  They  had  but  to  listen  in  silence  or  with  an 
occasional  cunning  question  or  implication  of  reverence 
and  enjoyment  in  order  to  get  the  orators  to  accede  to 
all  their  requests  or  desires. 

The  game  was  laughably  simple  and  unworthy  of  the 
great  powers  of  the  Vulpians.  But,  as  years  went  on, 
a  sense  of  being  cheated  of  what  they  had  earned  by 
hard  and  repulsive  work  grew  in  the  minds  of  the 
Jabberoons  underneath  the  soothing  flattery.  They 
became  uneasy  and  timid  at  first,  and  afterwards  furi- 
ously hostile  to  Vulpian  approaches.  Though  they 
were  passionate  for  listeners  and  for  flattering  applause, 
whether  loud  or  silent,  the}'  rose  in  a  body  whenever 
the}'  saw  a  Vulpian  expedition  near  their  shores. 
Nothing  so  united  them  or  so  froze  them  into  taci- 
turnity and  action  as  the  appearance  of  boats  from 
the  neighbouring  isle.  Yet  they  were  exploited  and 
fleeced  as  much  as  they  had  been  willing  to  be  before. 
A  stranger  would  land  on  the  opposite  side  of  Jabberoo, 
and  rouse  them  into  still  greater  fury  against  the  \'ul- 
pians  ;  he  would  head  them  in  their  attack  on  the 
expedition.  In  the  enthusiasm  of  victory  he  would 
persuade  them  to  provision  their  own  fleet  and  sail  out 
to  the  conquest  of  the  other  islands  of  the  archipelago. 
As  a  preliminary  they  made  first  for  Vulpia,  which, 
they  were  convinced,  would  fall  an  easy  prey  to  their 
prowess.  It  ended  in  their  tumbling  into  the  trap  laid 
for  them.  Their  fleet  was  piloted  on  to  shallows, 
where  it  had  to  be  abandoned,  and  their  enemies  kindly 
ferried  them  back  to  their  homes.  The  supplies  for  the 
long  voyage  of  conquest  were  secured  by  the  Vulpians; 
and  their  temporary  leader  vanished,  no  one  knew 
whither. 


Vulpia  253 

That  was  one  of  the  Vulpian  methods  of  warfare; 
but  they  had  the  astuteness  never  to  use  any  one  too 
often  ;  and,  as  the  Jabberoons  began  to  feel  dupe 
written  broadly  over  their  natures,  their  neighbours 
had  to  exercise  to  the  full  their  mania  for  diplomacy. 
Their  schemes  for  deceiving  them  were  absurdly  laby- 
rinthine, till  at  last  even  the  simplest  of  the  Jabberoons 
could  entangle  them  in  their  own  deceits.  They  gen- 
erally aimed  so  far  ahead  of  their  machinery  that  it  was 
the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  cut  the  connection  and 
bring  the  scheme  to  naught  ;  in  fact,  so  far-seeing  in 
their  diplomacy  did  they  become  that  the  mere  devel- 
opment of  events  often  destroyed  the  interest  in  their 
aim. 

Amongst  themselves  the  Vulpians  had  long  ago 
reached  this  point.  They  were  so  astute  and  so 
elaborate  and  far-seeing  in  their  schemes  for  attaining 
even  the  most  trivial  object  in  life  that  they  ceased  to 
vex  themselves  about  the  lives  of  each  other.  No  one 
ever  thought  of  finding  out  the  purpose  of  his  neigh- 
bour's moling  and  undermining.  They  grew  weary  of 
the  effort  after  so  often  discovering  the  paltry  nothing 
that  lay  at  the  end  of  the  machinations.  They  took  it 
as  their  own  natural  habit  of  mind  to  follow  out  their 
aim  by  many  a  circumflexion  and  twist.  At  last,  if 
a  Vulpian  wished  to  cheat  his  fellows  he  adopted  the 
simplest  and  most  direct  way  of  getting  at  his  object  ; 
and  he  had  reached  it  whilst  they  were  fumbling  in 
the  dark  and  floundering  in  a  slough  of  conjecture  and 
far-reaching  guess.  It  came  about  that  these  born 
diplomatists  acquired  in  dealing  with  one  another  the 
direct  and  simple  methods  of  the  most  ingenuous  peo- 
ple. The  homoeopathic  cure  of  lunacy  and  eccentricity 
adopted  by  the  archipelago  worked  its  usual  miracle. 


254 


Riallaro 


The  caging  of  men  of  the  same  weakness  or  vice  made 
them  sick  of  it  and  resort  to  its  opposite.  It  was  only 
against  a  people  who  were  off  their  guard  that  their 
old  diplomac}^  became  a  passion  in  them  again. 

And  Vulpia  was  one  of  the  favourite  hunting-grounds 
of  the  wags  of  the  archipelago.  They  delighted  in 
sending  this  nation  of  cunning  diplomatists  on  a  wrong 
scent  or  on  a  track  that  would  lead  them  into  a  ridicu- 
lous position  or  in  pursuit  of  something  thej^  detested. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  world  that  so  pleased  the 
youths  of  the  neighbouring  island  of  Witlingen. 


9  ti^^:-  ^  ^  f99^^v^j^^t^ 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

WITLINGEN   AND   ADJACENT  ISLANDS 

THE  adjacency  of  Vulpia  was  the  only  thing  that 
saved  the  inhabitants  of  Witlingen  from  stark 
madness.  They  organised  raids  upon  its  shores  in 
order  to  let  off  the  accumulated  wit  of  the  weeks  or 
months  in  which  they  had  had  to  repress  it.  They 
could  all  join  patriotically  in  such  an  expedition  against 
the  connnon  enemies,  the  human  foxes  and  tedium. 
For  weeks  they  enjoyed  the  elaborate  preparation  for 
the  brand  new  practical  jokelet  ;  whilst  its  success- 
ful consummation  saved  their  reason  and  gave  them 
laughter  for  months. 

At  other  times  Witlingen  was  a  hell  upon  earth  for 
them.  Here  were  they  gathered  together,  the  profes- 
sional joculasters  of  the  archipelago,  exiled  from  their 
favourite  hunting-grounds  and  condemned  to  the  com- 
pany of  the  men  whom  they  detested  most  in  the  world. 
It  was  indeed  the  most  lugubrious  of  the  islands. 
Everyone  knew  as  thoroughly  as  his  own  all  the  jests 
of  the  rest  of  his  fellow-islanders.  They  had  repeated 
them  or  heard  them  repeated  till  they  fled  from  them 
like  a  plague.  They  knew  the  whole  gamut  through 
which  human  wit  could  play,  and  smiled  dismally  and 
sceptically  at  the  idea  of  a  new  joke  ;  they  had  gone 

255 


256  Riallaro 

back  through  the  jest-books  of  past  times,  and  seen 
how  ever}'  age  had  merely  revamped  jests  that  must 
have  been  prehistoric.  They  were  quite  convinced 
(and  so  had  been  the  fatherland  of  each  before  exiling 
him)  that  in  no  realm  of  human  industry  was  there  so 
close  an  approach  to  the  automatic.  And  a  Swoonarian, 
it  was  said,  had  once  invented  a  human  automaton  that 
could  supply  any  one  of  all  the  witticisms  that  the  hu- 
man brain  had  been  able  to  hit  upon,  with  a  subsidiary 
movement  for  adapting  it  to  the  circumstances  or  dia- 
lect of  any  island.  The  Witlingenites  were  so  enraged 
at  his  offer  to  equip  the  government  of  every  country 
with  as  many  as  they  needed  at  small  cost  that  they 
wajdaid  the  ships  that  carried  them  and  sank  them 
with  their  cargoes. 

Theirs  was  one  of  the  islands  for  the  wayfarer  to 
avoid  ;  for  on  landing  he  was  liable  to  be  mobbed, 
every  Witlingenite  rushing  to  secure  him  for  an  audi- 
ence, and  if  by  any  chance  he  was  saved  and  became 
the  personal  perquisite  of  anj^  one  inhabitant  or  section 
of  the  inhabitants,  he  had  not  the  life  of  a  dog  ;  he  be- 
came the  butt  of  their  jests  and,  still  worse,  he  had  to 
be  the  appreciator  of  them.  The  onl}'  wa}-  in  which  he 
could  survive  or  escape  was  to  feign  deafness  or,  still 
better,  inabilit}'  to  understand  their  witticisms  and  so 
to  compel  them  to  explain  them. 

If  an}'  one  of  the  Witlingenites  managed  to  escape 
back  to  his  fatherland,  he  was  soon  recognised  by  his 
mosquito-like  buzzing  round  the  market-place  and  his 
buttonholing  of  all  and  sundry,  the  confidential  and 
sage  wag  of  his  head,  and  the  strut  of  his  demeanour 
after  a  series  of  successes  ;  there  was  nothing  in  earth 
or  out  of  it  but  he  could  make  himself  superior  to  by 
uttering  one  of  his  little  jokes  upon  it  ;  he  could  tread 


Witlingen  and  Adjacent  Islands    257 

on  the  neck  of  omniscience  and  omnipotence  itself,  if 
only  he  was  allowed  to  jest  about  it  to  his  fellow-men. 
It  was  this  peculiarity  of  the  joculasters  that  made 
them  the  pariahs  of  the  archipelago.  When  one  was 
found  to  have  escaped  from  Witlingen,  it  was  the  duty 
of  every  sane  self- respecting  man  and  woman  to  get  him 
quarantined,  like  a  leper,  and  sent  back.  It  was  only 
there  that  they  got  free  and  kept  free  of  their  terrible 
disease.  Besides  Vulpia  the  Witlingenites  had  now 
another  recreation-ground,  in  which  they  could  play 
off  practical  jokes  much  to  their  own  satisfaction.  It 
was  the  small  island  of  Fanfaronia.  The  peoples  of  the 
archipelago  had  begun  to  be  plagued  with  a  new  type 
of  eccentric,  the  would-be  world  conqueror.  The  suc- 
cess of  two  or  three  on  military  expeditions  and  the 
great  glory  that  they  gathered  to  themselves  thereby 
had  sent  an  epidemic  of  militant  brag  amongst  the 
youth  of  the  various  islands.  The  manner  was  most 
infectious  ;  and,  in  order  to  stop  the  spread  of  the 
plague,  the  saner  majorities  had  to  adopt  the  usual 
homoeopathic  cure.  Every  youth  who  strutted  with 
head  on  chest  and  arms  folded,  and  assumed  superiority 
of  genius  to  his  fellows,  and  to  their  moral  rules  and 
conventions,  was  exiled  to  Fanfaronia  ;  and  there 
proximity  of  likes  kept  the  disease  in  abeyance.  But 
as  soon  as  a  stranger  landed,  the  Fanfaronians  struck 
the  stage  attitudes  of  great  conquerors  and  looked  for 
adoration  from  him.  It  was  on  this  weakness  that  the 
Witlingenites  played,  and  thus  found  another  escape- 
valve  for  their  own  mental  malady. 

The}'  had  rivals  for  the  use  of  this  new  arena  in 
the  inhabitants  of  the  large  island  of  Simiola,  that  lay 
close  to  their  coasts.     The  particular  disease  that  had 

brought    the    Simiolans   together  was  an    irresistible 
17 


258  Riallaro 

tendency  to  act  the  shadow  or  echo  of  those  whom  they 
saw  or  heard,  and  epecially  of  those  whom  others  ad- 
mired. The  best  and  feeblest  of  them  had  been  useless 
to  the  communities  in  which  thej^  had  lived  ;  for, 
though  innocent  of  any  malignant  purpose,  tlie}^  were 
mere  parrots  that  depreciated  the  currency  of  good 
words  or  manners  or  acts  or  wisdom  by  the  wear  of  too 
frequent  repetition.  But  most  of  them  had  been  mis- 
chievous or  even  dangerous  in  their  habits.  They 
were  by  nature  backbiters  and  malicious,  with  a  passion 
for  depreciating  and  trampling  in  the  mud  whatsoever 
had  stirred  the  praise  or  admiration  of  other  people  or 
their  own  envy  or  jealousy.  These  had  become  foul  or 
ape-like  in  their  habit  of  life  and  even  in  their  forms. 
There  was  nothing  they  would  not  condescend  to  in 
order  to  bring  down  to  their  level  all  that  seemed  to  be 
above  them.  Their  island  was  seldom  approached  b}' 
voyagers,  so  dangerous  was  it  to  land  on  it.  Yet  wag- 
gish expeditions  frequently  made  it  their  hunting- 
ground  ;  for  looked  at  from  a  distance  their  conduct 
was  often  laughable,  and  their  growing  likeness  to  apes 
gave  zest  to  the  comedy.  But  they  became  violent  if 
the  strangers  ever  attempted  to  mimic  them  or  laugh  at 
them  ;  and  the  favourite  method  of  teasing  them  was 
to  bring  an  ape  and  set  it  beside  them  ;  they  hated 
the  mere  sight  of  the  beast,  for  in  it,  it  was  thought, 
they  discovered  their  own  certain  destiny.  Yet  their 
chief  deit}'  in  their  central  shrine,  it  was  found  by  a 
daring  traveller  who  penetrated  its  mystery,  was  the  re- 
presentation of  an  ape,  gigantic  and  monstrous  yet  man- 
like. They  did  their  best  to  put  that  traveller  to  death  ; 
but  he  had  taken  all  precautions  and  escaped.  They 
thought  that  they  worshipped  the  noblest  being  in  the 
universe,  and  seemed  quite  unconscious  that  they  had 


Witlingcn  and  Adjacent  Islands    259 

made  his  image  in  the  likeness  of  an  ape.  It  was  only 
a  foreigner  and  alien  who  could  see  the  resemblance. 

Close  by  the  shores  of  Simiola,  and  as  like  it  as  isle 
could  be  to  isle,  lay  Polaria,  a  still  more  favoured 
hunting-ground  for  the  waggish  youth  of  the  archi- 
pelago. This  was  where  they  fleshed  their  first  intel- 
lectual weapons  ;  for  the  Polarians  fell  into  the  traps 
set  for  them  with  exceptional  ease.  They  had  been 
exiled  and  brought  together  here  on  account  of  a 
strange  but  common  malady,  that  of  guiding  their 
words  and  conduct  by  the  rule  of  contraries  ;  finding 
themselves  with  a  passion  for  independence  of  action, 
and  without  the  power  of  origination,  they  tried  to  at- 
tain the  appearance  of  it  by  contradicting  all  they  heard 
and  making  their  actions  the  opposite  of  those  they 
saw.  The}^  so  to  speak,  enjoyed  each  other's  society 
more  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  islands  ;  for 
it  made  their  hearts  leap  to  hear  a  flat  contradiction  of 
what  they  said;  their  blood  was  up,  and  they  had  a 
good  run  by  the  rule  of  contraries.  They  hated  each 
other  most  heartily,  and  would  put  themselves  to  in- 
finite trouble  to  find  out  what  their  neighbours  or 
friends  did  or  loved  in  order  to  do  the  very  opposite.  It 
was  their  daily  feast  to  go  abroad  and  especially  to 
wander  in  the  market-place  ;  for,  if  they  met  a  man 
who  seemed  to  know  something  about  a  subject,  they 
could  contradict  him  to  their  heart's  content,  and  make 
him  feel  how  little  he  knew  of  it.  They  cultivated 
ignorance  of  the  favourite  topics  of  the  day  so  that 
they  might  have  a  free  hand  in  saying  the  opposite  of 
anyone  who  had  studied  them.  Knowledge  would 
shut  their  mouths  and  deprive  them  of  the  rapture  of  a 
good  long  wrangle. 

It  was  amusing  to  see  one  of  the  wags  lay  his  traps 


26o  Riallaro 

for  them.  He  would  find  out  from  neighbours  or 
friends  what  were  their  pet  opinions,  beliefs,  or  prin- 
ciples, and  being  fully  equipped  he  would  approach 
and  announce  in  a  loud  and  assertive  voice  one  or 
other  of  them  ;  at  once  would  come  the  recantation  ; 
and  through  the  whole  range  of  their  creed  he  would 
pass  and  get  them  to  deny  all  they  believed.  But  it 
needed  some  adroitness  to  escape  ultimate  detection, 
and  he  had  to  make  arrangements  for  avoiding  the 
tempest  of  rage  that  was  sure  to  follow  the  process  of 
making  them  eat  their  own  words. 

They  had  the  greatest  contempt  for  the  inhabitants 
of  Simiola,  and  hated  them  even  more  heartily  than 
they  hated  each  other.  The  very  sight  of  them  on 
their  distant  shore  drove  them  into  a  violent  pas- 
sion. Yet  a  Simiolan  would  as  naturally  contradict  a 
Polarian  as  if  he  had  been  a  Polarian  himself.  The 
two  were  too  much  alike  in  their  principles  of  action 
to  have  any  chance  of  common  sympath)'. 

Farther  away  in  the  direction  of  Tirralaria,  but 
nearer  Wotnekst  on  the  side  of  Feneralia,  lay  another 
group  of  islets  inhabited  bj^  those  who  were  crazj'  on 
the  subject  of  thrift.  The  Grabawlians  were  the 
misers  of  the  archipelago  ;  they  had  developed  such  a 
faculty  for  the  concealment  of  money  and  possessions 
that  you  would  have  thought  them  as  stricken  with 
poverty  as  their  greatest  enemies  and  nearest  neigh- 
bours, the  Iconoclasts.  These  last  counted  capital  the 
unpardonable  sin.  They  refused  to  cultivate  the  soil 
lest  they  should  have  to  harvest  its  fruits  and  store 
them  up.  Thrift  they  considered  the  greatest  of  vices. 
Trade  and  commerce  they  abhorred,  and  money,  wher- 
ever they  found  it,  they  threw  into  the  sea  ;  it  was 
their  devil.     Tools  and  houses  they  eschewed  as  the 


Witlingen  and  Adjacent  Islands     261 

outcome  of  providence,  and  a  form  of  capital.  The 
only  accumulation  that  they  looked  on  with  tolerance 
was  that  of  filth  and  the  refuse  of  Nature  and  man. 
Clothing  they  would  have  none  of ;  it  was  the  result 
of  industry  and  the  sign  and  symbol  of  hated  fore- 
thought; they  ignored  and  tolerated  the  kindly  services 
of  Nature  in  trying  by  means  of  her  winds  and  dust  and 
various  forms  of  decay  to  mould  them  a  substitute  ;  for 
they  refused  to  assist  her  in  her  ablutional  attempts  to 
undo  her  work. 

No  one  ever  saw  them  eat  ;  but  this  was  no  proof 
that  they  never  ate.  The  fruits  disappeared  off  the 
trees  ;  and  there  were  many  holes  in  the  earth  to  show 
where  roots  had  been  dug.  If  ever  they  felt  the  pangs 
of  hunger  or  thirst  they  vanished  from  the  neighbour- 
hood of  their  fellow-men  ;  they  would  rather  die  than 
acknowledge  to  either  ;  for  to  satisfy  it  meant  the  in- 
dulgence in  industry  ;  and  industry  was  the  sure  sign 
of  a  nature  degenerating  into  thrift  and  capital.  Their 
meals  were,  everybody  knew,  nocturnal;  they  kept  up 
the  farce  to  each  other  of  professing  to  be  above  both 
meat  and  drink. 

If  they  were  ever  seen  to  bustle  about,  you  might  be 
sure  that  they  were  exterminating  a  nest  of  ants  or 
chasing  a  bee  off  the  island  ;  these  were  in  their  view 
the  criminals  of  the  animal  kingdom,  the  economisers 
and  capitalists.  One  of  their  favourite  maxims  was 
this  :  "  Go  to  the  ant,  thou  thriftling  and  idiot  ;  con- 
sider her  ways  and  be  wi.se  ;  .see  how  she  toils  and 
stores  unceasingly  from  birth  to  death,  enslaved  to  a 
despotic  instinct,  brutally  fettered  to  the  future." 

The  wonder  was  that  they  did  not  follow  out  the 
logic  of  their  creed  and  crusade  against  thrift  in  Nature's 
own  camp.     There  was  she  treasuring  up  the  carbon 


262  Riallaro 

of  the  falling  leaves  to  make  the  fruits  of  the  coming 
summer.  There  was  she  storing  up  sap  during  her  idle 
months  that  she  might  make  her  trees  and  plants  blos- 
som in  spring.  Naj-,  in  their  own  systems  was  she  at 
work  from  infancy  onwards  carefully  providing  for 
later  periods  of  life.  They  did  their  best,  it  is  true,  to 
defeat  her  in  her  providence  and  thrift  ;  for  they 
were  walking  skeletons  and  hospitals.  But  after  all 
their  efforts  they  failed  to  eradicate  her  thrift  from 
their  own  systems.  It  was  their  unhappiness  that 
every  new  turn  in  their  lives  revealed  to  them  some 
form  of  it  in  themselves,  that  they  had  either  to  attempt 
to  get  rid  of  or  pretend  to  each  other  that  they  had  not 
got.  They  refused  to  see  that  the  only  avoidance  of 
thrift  was  suicide,  and  that  even  that  was  a  form 
of  thrift.  Nature,  their  foe,  had  perhaps  generously 
blinded  them. 

A  singular  group  of  islets  was  situated  beyond  these 
and  collectively  called  Paranomia.  Their  inhabitants 
had  all  been  exiled  for  some  craze  they  had  developed 
on  the  subject  of  law.  They  respected  it  either  too 
much  or  too  little.  Some  were  so  devoted  to  it  that 
they  spent  their  time  in  litigation  and  missed  approach 
to  the  spirit  of  equity  ;  others  reached  the  same  goal 
b}'  snapping  their  fingers  at  all  law. 

One  of  the  group,  called  Pal  indicia,  was  colonised  by 
justitiomaniacs,  who  were  not  happy  unless  engaged 
in  dealing  out  justice.  They  did  not  object  to  acting 
the  part  of  prosecutor  or  counsel  ;  but  their  especial 
passion  was  judicial  ;  they  would  have  risen  in  rebel- 
lion, had  not  their  administrators  given  them  daily 
employment  on  the  bench  or  in  the  jury-box. 

How  to  supph'  the  people  with  cases  and  criminals 
was  the  difficult}^  that  beset  the  government,  and  drove 


Witlingen  and  Adjacent  Islands    263 

them  to  their  wits'  ends.  Once  they  had  proposed  to 
put  in  the  dock  a  dummy  or  automatic  criminal  ;  but 
they  nearly  lost  their  lives  in  the  brawl  that  resulted. 
It  was  an  unpardonable  insult  to  the  humanity  of  the 
Palindicians  to  make  them  play  at  toy  trials.  They 
would  not  suffer  such  an  outrage  and  caricature  on  the 
justice  they  so  adored.  They  must  have  real  flesh- 
and-blood  criminals  to  try,  cases  with  a  vein  of  tragedy 
running  through  them,  to  whet  their  judicial  skill 
upon.  They  would  soon  produce  a  good  supply,  if  the 
government  did  not  look  out  ;  the  administrators  would 
last  a  good  while,  if  placed  one  after  another  in  the 
dock. 

In  fact,  they  rather  preferred  an  innocent  man  for 
their  experiments  in  justice;  for,  they  often  said, 
where  lay  the  talent  or  ability  in  sheeting  a  crime  home 
to  one  who  was  guilty  ?  There  was  something  of  true 
genius  in  convicting  an  innocent  man,  and  in  making 
his  friends  feel  that  there  was  something  wrong  about 
him.  His  defence  was  so  earnest  that  his  prosecution 
and  trial  had  to  be  exhibitions  of  the  greatest  judicial 
talent  in  order  to  secure  his  condemnation.  A  real 
criminal  was  clogged  and  handicapped  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  crime,  and  after  a  little  struggle  suc- 
cumbed. The  guiltless  or  his  friends  kept  up  the 
judicial  battle  for  years,  and  the  whole  nation  was 
drawn  into  the  case,  so  that  every  citizen  revelled  in 
the  exercise  of  his  sense  of  justice. 

One  of  the  most  successful  methods  for  employing 
all  the  people  in  a  trial  for  a  long  period  was,  when  a 
crime  actually  occurred,  to  get  the  wronged  in  the  dock 
and  make  the  guilty  try  him.  It  relieved  the  govern- 
ment for  years  and  years  of  anxiety  about  the  supply  of 
subjects  for  the  judicial  scalpel.     The  bench  of  crim- 


264  Riallaro 

inals  so  enmeshed  their  victim  in  the  toils  that  there 
was  no  escape  for  him,  and  3'et  there  was  the  most  ex- 
quisite exercise  for  the  national  passion.  The  laby- 
rinth became  almost  too  intricate  for  their  sense  of 
justice.  Yet  they  were  thankful  for  it;  it  was  ex- 
actly what  they  wanted  ;  for  it  meant  appeal  from 
court  to  court,  and  trial  after  trial  with  all  the  evidence 
and  the  details  over  again.  In  fact,  they  had  manu- 
factured so  many  tribunals,  one  above  another  in 
even  gradation,  that  the  simplest  case  might  last 
them  years,  and  every  member  of  the  community 
have  his  judicial  skill  whetted  every  day.  The  result 
was  that,  however  guiltless  the  accused  might  seem 
when  he  first  entered  the  dock,  he  was  driven  into 
false  witness,  or  perjury,  or  treason  before  he  had  gone 
far,  and  by  the  close  every  Palindician  was  convinced 
that  he  only  got  his  deserts,  when  condemned  ;  their 
sense  of  justice  was  fully  satisfied,  as  well  as  their  pas- 
sion for  judgment  ;  and  those  who  had  brought  him 
into  the  meshes  were  panegyrised  as  true  patriots. 
They  were  always  deeply  grieved  at  the  condemnation 
of  an  accused  by  the  last  court  of  appeal  ;  for  the  case 
was  then  finally  disposed  of,  and  ceased  to  afford  an 
arena  for  their  judicial  talents.  The  only  consolation 
in  the  misfortune  was  that  the  defence  and  its  failure 
might  possibly  supply  a  new  crop  of  traitors,  whose 
cases  might  last  for  5'-ears. 

Century  after  century  they  had  had  a  splendid  judicial 
preserve  in  the  remnant  of  an  aboriginal  race  that  had 
developed  a  genius  for  finance  and  subtlety.  Whatever 
laws  the  Palindicians  might  pass,  these  aliens  were  so 
astute  that  in  all  their  financial  triumphs  they  could 
avoid  breaking  them.  It  was  one  of  the  patriotic 
amusements  of  the  citizens  to  get  up  a  periodical  battue 


Witlingen  and  Adjacent  Islands    265 

and  hunt  one  or  another  of  these  unfortunates  into  the 
legal  nest  ;  self-defence  or  retaliation  generally  led  him 
at  last  to  commit  some  crime,  treason  or  assault  or 
slander,  against  a  citizen  ;  and  thus  a  first-class  crim- 
inal was  manufactured  for  their  unemployed  law  courts,  v 
and,  as  he  was  baited  by  witnesses  false  or  true  from 
court  to  court,  he  fell  deeper  and  deeper  into  genuine 
criminality  ;  by  developing  new  phases  and  working 
up  new  issues,  they  could  husband  the  case  for  a  long 
period. 

But  too  frequent  battues  had  thinned  the  game  in 
this  legal  preserve,  and  the  proclamation  of  a  close 
season  had  not  sufficed  to  restore  the  old  numbers,  or 
even  make  them  commensurate  with  the  Palindician 
passion  for  justice.  They  were  driven  at  last  to  use  up 
any  strangers  that  landed  on  their  shores.  Unfortun- 
ately most  of  these  were  criminals  from  the  other  isl- 
ands, and  they  had  always  made  better  material  for  the 
bench  than  for  the  dock.  In  fact,  it  had  become  the 
custom  for  the  Palindicians  to  use  them  as  judges  ;  for 
who  could  dispense  justice  so  well  as  the  guilty  ?  Who 
more  experienced  than  the  criminal  in  finding  out 
crime  ?  The  culprits  of  the  archipelago  were  so 
convinced  of  the  rightness  of  Palindician  judgment 
that  they  fled  at  once  to  the  island,  unless  the  cruel 
despotism  of  law  retained  them  in  their  own.  It  was 
with  regret  then  that  these  devotees  of  justice  were 
driven  by  failure  of  the  natural  supply  to  change  their 
policy  and  put  them  in  the  dock.  There  they  were 
anything  but  satisfactory,  and  were  convicted  too 
easily  and  rapidly. 

The  Palindicians  had  grown  sad  as  they  reflected 
over  the  mysterious  workings  of  Providence  ;  for  here 
were  they  with  all  this  passion  and  genius  for  justice  ; 


266  Riallaro 

and  yet  this  new  supply  ran  short.  The  criminals  of 
the  archipelago  had  ceased  to  believe  in  Palindician 
justice,  and  preferred  in  their  blindness  to  take  refuge 
in  some  other  paradise;  and  it  looked  as  if  the  inhab- 
itants of  this  unfortunate  island  would  either  have  to 
find  subjects  for  their  judicial  talent  in  their  own  ranks 
or  abandon  its  refinement  and  power  through  want  of 
practice.  Such  a  dilemma  never  had  any  people  had 
to  face. 

And  where  would  justice  find  a  home,  if  they  were 
driven  to  the  latter  alternative  ?  Would  not  the  world 
mourn  the  greatest  of  virtues  perished,  if  once  she  were 
banished  from  her  last  refuge  ?  No,  rather  would  they 
resort  to  the  trivial  contests  of  civil  litigation  than  per- 
mit such  a  catastrophe;  rather  would  they  manufacture 
their  criminals  out  of  the  guiltless  in  their  own  ranks 
than  let  Palindicia  cease  to  be  the  jewel  of  justice. 
Not  one  of  them  but  would  sacrifice  his  dearest  friend 
rather  than  allow  the  genius  for  judgment  to  vanish 
from  the  earth. 

It  was  prattle  like  this  that  made  me  forget  the  mal- 
odorous state  of  the  narrator.  Sneekape  knew  that  he 
had  to  do  something  in  order  to  withdraw  my  energies 
from  my  olfactory  nerves  ;  and  he  succeeded.  His 
entertainment,  when  it  ended,  left  me  again  a  prej^  to 
the  thought  of  the  commanding  odours  that  rayed  out 
from  him.  But  rest  and  freedom  were  near  ;  for  night 
fell  and  mesmerised  our  faculties. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


KLORIOLE 


THE  gauntlet  of  stenches  that  we  had  run  stifled  us 
into  deep  and  long  sleep.  The  sun  was  far  up 
the  sky  when  we  awakened,  and  its  heat  seemed  some- 
how to  have  subdued  the  traces  of  Awdyoo  to  a  faint, 
though  pungent  and  offensive,  odour.  We  looked 
ahead  and  astern.  The  current  was  much  slower  ; 
some  undercurrent  in  the  opposite  direction  must  have 
been  dragging  it  back.  All  trace  of  land  had  vanished 
behind  us.  But  there  was  either  a  cloud  or  the  top  of 
some  hill  on  the  sky-rim  to  which  the  canoe  was  drift- 
ing. We  fell  into  stupor  again  ;  and,  when  I  stirred 
to  life,  the  stars  were  keen  as  stiletto  points  above  us. 
I  la}^  staring  at  them  till  they  became  eyes  that  spoke 
to  me  of  the  deep  night  and  the  infinite  abysses  where- 
in they  were  moved  to  tears.  A  warm  breath  softened 
the  distance  between  us  and  soothed  my  senses. 

I  must  have  been  asleep  again,  dreaming  that  they 
had  a  language  of  their  own  full  of  intensity  of  mean- 
ing, and  that  they  bade  me  approach  them  without 
fear  ;  for  the  sunlight  was  around  me,  as  I  seemed  to 
fall  from  them  with  prosaic  suddenness  into  the  still 
fetid  reminiscences  of  Awdyoo. 

At  the  moment  of  awakening  there  dropped  upon 
267 


268  Riallaro 

me  as  I  lay  what  seemed  at  first  almost  an  eman- 
ation from  the  gleam  of  heaven.  I  raised  my  head 
and  found  that  a  white,  bird-shaped  float  was  lightly 
resting  on  the  bottom  of  the  canoe.  I  lifted  it  and  saw 
that  it  was  covered  with  written  or  printed  characters. 
I  handed  it  to  my  companion,  who  was  also  awake, 
and,  as  he  read,  he  burst  into  a  derisive  laugh.  It  was 
a  love-poem,  he  explained,  written  in  the  fulsome  con- 
ventional language  of  Kloriole,  as  he  called  the  island 
we  were  approaching.  He  translated  a  few  lines  into 
Aleofanian  with  a  sneer: 

Deity  and  sex  combined, 
Godlike  despot  of  the  mind  ! 
Look  on  our  eternal  fate. 
Ere  the  ages  antedate 
All  that  we  shall  be  in  death. 
Mingling  souls  in  fleeting  breath. 
God  and  woman,  make  me  god  ; 
With  thy  glances  starlight-shod 
Slay  me  ;  for  I  would  be  slain  ; 
Slay  me  once  and  yet  again  ; 
Slay  me  with  thy  deadly  kiss  ; 
Sweet  such  apotheosis  ! 

Let  not  mercy  stay  thy  hand  ! 
We  shall  never  understand 
All  the  god  that  in  us  lies 
Till  from  death  our  spirits  rise, 
Never  know  what  might  we  own 
Till  through  space  we  wing  alone 
On  from  orb  to  orb  of  night. 
Shedding  our  creative  light  ; 
Whilst  our  mortal  worshippers 
Watch  from  world  to  universe. 
Free  my  spirit  from  afar. 
Thou  my  love's  own  avatar  ! 


Kloriole  269 

I  was  bewildered  by  the  strange  medley  of  love  and 
religion  and  mysticism.  Sneekape  saw  the  perplexity 
in  my  eyes,  and  with  a  gross  laugh  tore  the  kite  of  love 
to  pieces  and  flung  them  into  the  sea.  He  expressed 
the  greatest  contempt  for  such  feeble  mystifications  of 
the  delights  of  the  senses.  I  confessed  that  I  had  not 
much  sympathy  or  admiration  for  such  performances  ; 
they  were,  like  buffoonery  and  wit,  a  mere  trick  of  the 
mind  ;  it  was  generally  lame  thought  that  needed  such 
rhyme  and  verses  as  crutches  ;  learn  the  hobbling  gait 
earl}'  enough,  and  you  could  go  on  to  infinity.  It  was 
not  at  his  contempt,  then,  that  I  felt  disgusted  ;  it  was 
perhaps  at  the  petty  sneer  that  accompanied  its  ex- 
pression. 

In  order  to  cast  out  the  loathing,  I  began  to  wonder 
whence  the  missive  came.  I  looked  back,  and  right 
above  us  loomed  a  great  hill  crowned  with  a  massive 
building,  and  up  to  the  gigantic  porch  climbed  innu- 
merable flights  of  steps  cut  into  the  living  rock.  Scat- 
tered over  the  balustrades  and  niches  and  recesses  that 
ornamented  the  upward  course  of  the  stair  stood  or  sat 
many  beings  fantastically  dressed  and  looking  up  either 
to  the  sky  or  to  the  edifice  that  broke  the  azure.  Some 
were  floating  what  seemed  paper  kites  ;  others  were 
watching  their  flight,  as  they  rushed  before  the  wind  or 
fell  like  falling  stars  into  the  sea  or  behind  the  hill,  or 
vanished  into  the  blue  distance.  I  knew  then  whence 
had  come  the  amatory  lyric  that  had  butterflied  into 
our  canoe. 

It  was  the  marvellous  ascension  of  the  steps  that 
struck  me  most.  They  seemed  to  dwarf  by  their  broad 
spacing  and  their  number  the  enormous  building  that 
crowned  the  height  up  which  they  clambered.  How 
puny  seemed  the  men  and  women  that  moved  about 


2/0  Riallaro 

their  upper  flights.  I  could  see  that  they  were  human 
beings;  but  that  was  all.  Even  half-way  up  it  seemed 
a  lark's  flight  into  the  blue.  It  wearied  the  imagina- 
tion to  count  the  gradings  between;  still  more  to  think 
of  the  ascent,  or  the  long  years  that  must  have  passed 
in  chiselling  out  this  daring  work  of  ambition. 

The  lowest  flight  had  its  knees  in  the  ocean,  and  as 
we  approached  we  could  see  the  verdant  sea-hair  float 
and  fall  across  the  rising  wave  or  shimmer  in  the  rip- 
ple. For  a  hundred  steps  or  more  the  sea  in  its  tides 
or  its  passions  claimed  dominance  and  left  the  record 
of  its  conquests.  We  moored  our  canoe  between  two 
pillars  cut  in  the  rock,  and  attempted  to  ascend.  But 
it  was  a  work  of  extreme  difficulty  and  danger.  Each 
step  had  been  smoothed  into  a  slope  by  the  feet  of  ages 
of  climbers  and  by  the  action  of  the  waters  ;  and  the 
lubricant  green,  wherewith  the  waves  velveted  them, 
made  footing  almost  impossible.  We  slid  and  tumbled 
back  into  the  sea  a  dozen  times,  and  each  time  we 
made  effort  to  scale  the  flight  it  became  harder  from 
the  growing  burden  of  water  in  our  clothes.  At  last 
one  of  the  native  climbers  farther  up  indicated  the 
sides  of  the  steps,  where  they  were  but  roughly  cut  out 
of  the  rock.  Swimming  along  to  the  right  side,  we 
found  there  was  almost  the  sierraed  roughness  of  na- 
ture. We  could  just  catch  some  of  the  sharp  points, 
and,  by  means  of  these,  and  at  first  almost  prostrate,  we 
hauled  ourselves  over  the  sleek  garden  of  the  tide. 
Then,  finding  the  weed  less  silken  and  the  rock  less 
jagged,  we  crept  on  our  knees  up  manj^  steps  ;  and 
when  we  looked  back  we  saw  traces  of  our  own  blood 
upon  them.  Then  we  looked  into  the  notched  rock 
before  us  and  saw  the  dark  bloodmark  of  generations 
that  had  gone  before  us  stained  deep  into  its  texture. 


Kloriole  271 

This  lower  portion  of  the  marvellous  staircase  was  in- 
deed hierogl5^phed  and  pictured  with  human  lifeblood. 

The  thought  made  me  shudder,  as  I  looked  back  into 
the  flood,  for  there  doubtless  had  been  the  grave  of 
myriads.  How  could  any  merely  human  fingers  cling 
here  when  the  waves  were  high,  or  the  wind  lashed 
them  into  fury  ?  Out  in  the  open  I  could  see  the  fins 
of  sea- monsters  glance  in  the  sun  ;  there  was  the 
fate  of  the  fallen  climbers;  there  were  the  scavengers 
and  mortuary  vaults  of  the  feebly  ambitious  dead  that 
yielded  to  their  destiny  and  fell  ;  there  was  the  reason 
why  the  sea  around  was  not  one  vast  gehenna. 

We  were  strong  with  exposure  and  exercise,  our 
cuticle  hardened  and  thick ;  and  yet  we  were  wounded 
and  torn  by  our  upward  efforts.  We  were  now  almost 
sea-creatures  from  our  life  in  the  briny  air  and  the 
splash  of  the  billows  ;  and  so,  perhaps,  it  was  that  the 
man-eaters  below  let  us  alone  when  we  fell  back  into 
the  waters;  at  any  rate  they  swam  far  off  from  us,  as 
if  they  would  have  no  dealings  with  such  strangers. 

At  length  we  reached  the  upper  margin  of  the  sea's 
domain,  and  sat  down, weary  and  faint,  to  let  our  blood 
harden  on  our  wounds  in  the  sun.  Around  us  stood  a 
crowd  of  pale  and  shadowy  forms,  their  long  hair 
matted  or  tressed  over  their  shoulders,  vague  distance 
in  their  eyes,  and  something  that  looked  like  a  pen  in 
their  right  hands.  They  fingered  our  clothes  and  hair 
in  a  dreamy  way,  and  sighed,  and  looked,  and  sighed 
again.  Then  one  or  another  would  retire  into  the 
background  and  seat  himself  on  one  of  the  steps,  where 
others  too,  I  now  saw,  were  seated  in  an  attitude  of 
meditation.  They  gazed  into  the  sky,  and  then  looked 
intense  ;  the}^  ran  their  thin  white  fingers  through 
their  long  hair;  then  they  consulted  slips  of  paper,  on 


2  72  Riallaro 

which  were  evidentl}'  printed  rules  for  their  guidance  ; 
they  threw  their  heads  wildly  about;  their  eyes  seemed 
ready  to  burst  from  their  sockets;  they  rose  and  flung 
their  arms  aloft  ;  they  whirled  around  and  danced  at 
imminent  risk  of  falling  back  into  the  sea.  Then  I  saw 
them  settle  into  a  stupor;  their  lips  moved  and  mum- 
bled as  if  in  sleep  ;  they  awoke,  and  over  a  sheet  that 
the}'  held  in  their  left  hands  their  pens  flew.  These 
performances  went  on  for  almost  an  hour  till  everyone 
around  us  had  settled  down  to  his  pen  and  paper. 

Sneekape  whispered  with  a  contemptuous  smile  that 
this  was  inspiration.  They  had  been  waiting,  prob- 
ably months,  for  a  new  subject,  and  our  arrival  had  set 
them  all  poeticallj-  adrift.  They  had  each  hope  of  ris- 
ing another  flight  up  the  steps  of  fame,  borne  on  the 
pinions  of  a  new  ecstasy. 

We  rose  to  look  at  the  frenzied  bev}-  of  poets.  And 
now  I  saw  that  across  the  head  of  the  flight,  on  which 
we  were,  ran  a  lofty  arabesque  fence  of  adamant  with 
a  narrow  gate  in  the  middle  most  elaborately  bolted 
and  padlocked.  Inside  it  stood  in  an  attitude  of  attack 
a  serried  arra}'  of  lank  forms,  clothed  in  vestures  that 
were  splendidly  formal,  some  holding  scissors  on  the 
end  of  long  poles,  others  bearing  in  one  hand  dirty, 
long-handled  brushes,  and,  in  the  other,  pots  streaked 
with  some  black  and  greasy  fluid,  a  third  set  swinging 
censers  alight,  and  a  fourth  carrying  huge  inflaited  bags 
on  their  backs.  They  looked,  a  scowl  or  a  sneer  on 
their  villainous  low  brows,  upon  the  writhing  romanc- 
ers on  the  other  side  of  the  adamant  scrollwork. 
Half  of  them  were  boys  with  a  low  type  of  face  that 
indicated  more  bravado  than  intelligence,  more  flip- 
pancy than  wit  ;  of  the  others  some  had  more  years 
and  more  truculence,  and  a  look  of  envy  and  malice  in 


Kloriole  273 

their  eye  ;  the  rest  were  men  bowed  by  j^ears  and  de- 
spair of  life,  and  on  their  faces  was  a  look  as  of  pity 
and  reminiscence. 

This  was  the  lower  ring  of  acolytes  of  the  great 
temple  of  Literary  Fame,  Sneekape  whispered  to  me; 
there  were  four  divisions  of  them,  as  I  could  see  by 
their  implements,  and  these  were  the  snippers,  the  de- 
facers,  the  burners,  and  the  wiudbaggers,  as  their  Klo- 
riolean  names  might  be  translated.  They  had  a  mean 
and  somewhat  soiled  shrine  of  Fame  on  the  left  side  of 
their  rocky  platform,  and  here  relays  of  them  kept  up 
continual  worship,  burning  on  the  altar  imaginative 
productions  that  they  caught. 

My  attention  was  drawn  to  the  other  side  by  nego- 
tiations going  on  there.  Some  of  the  wild-haired 
3'ouths,  who  had  evidently  finished  the  result  of  their 
frenzy,  had  come  up  to  the  scroll-fence  and  were  hag- 
gling and  bargaining  with  one  or  other  of  a  group  of 
sleek  business-like  men  within  it.  These  were  called 
the  propagators,  my  companion  said,  and  their  func- 
tion was  to  supply  the  means  for  floating  any  new 
product  of  the  fancy  towards  the  priests  and  the  wor- 
shippers of  the  temple  of  Fame.  I  saw  that  most  of 
the  pale  youths  returned  to  their  seats  on  the  steps  with 
a  look  of  baffled  eagerness  in  their  eyes.  They  touched 
and  retouched  their  sheets  and  wearily  erased  and  in- 
serted with  their  pens.  A  few  succeeded  in  getting 
paper-floats  with  their  complement  of  gossamer  thread 
and  other  apparatus  from  the  propagators.  And  with 
the  gleam  of  proud  achievement  in  their  looks  they 
prepared  to  attach  their  writings  to  them  and  set  them 
afloat.  But  most  of  the  literary  kites  refused  to  rise, 
and  when  thrown  up  into  the  air  fell  heavily  back  into 
the  sea  and  either  sank  or  were  torn  under  by  the 


2  74  Riallaro 

devouring  monsters.  A  few  of  more  prosperous  and 
cheerful  appearance  approached  the  windbaggers  ;  I 
watched  one  of  them  :  aided  by  his  propagator,  he  got 
some  coin  or  valuable  transferred  through  the  inter- 
stices of  the  fence  into  the  hidden  palm  of  one  of  the 
sack-bearing  acolytes,  and  before  long  he  had  his 
kite  afloat,  dancing  upon  the  puff  of  wind  that  issued 
from  the  nozzle  of  his  ally's  bag.  The  other  acolytes 
made  fierce  lunges  at  it  with  their  scissors,  or  brush,  or 
censer.  Amongst  those  that  managed  to  float,  one  had 
its  thread  early  snipped  and  fell  over  the  parapet;  an- 
other sank,  heavy  from  the  foul  effacement  from  an  ink- 
brush;  another  caught  fire  and  was  burned  in  a  censer. 
Two  succeeded  in  running  the  gauntlet  and  floating 
higher  ;  but  at  the  next  enclosure  they  succumbed  to 
the  attacks  from  behind  it.  The  owners  of  these  were 
admitted  within  the  fence  by  which  we  stood  ;  and  I 
saw  the  proud  smile  on  their  faces.  One  of  them  was 
persuaded  to  join  the  group  of  acolytes,  and,  when  he 
donned  the  vestments,  he  seemed  to  lose  his  old  and 
picturesque  personality  and  take  on  the  truculence  of 
his  new  companions.  The  other  turned  away  from 
them  with  a  weary  but  ambitious  face  and  climbed  up 
the  long  flight  towards  the  next  barrier. 

As  I  looked  upwards  I  now  perceived  that  there  was 
a  barrier,  with  a  crowd  of  acolytes  and  propagators 
on  the  one  side  and  a  diminishing  crowd  of  suppliants 
on  the  other,  at  the  head  of  every  flight.  The  strange 
thing  was  that,  as  the  distance  increased,  the  size 
and  sleekness  of  each  fence-divided  bevy  increased 
too,  till  up  at  the  porch  of  the  temple,  priests,  pro- 
pagators, and  poets  looked  fat  and  almost  bloated  ; 
they  reclined  on  rich  couches,  and  were  surrounded 
with  the  luxuries  that  would  fit  an  outdoor  tropical 


Kloriole  275 

existence.  It  was  little  wonder  that  the  thin,  pale  faces 
of  the  candidates  below  looked  up  with  such  longing 
to  that  Olympus  and  Elysium  in  one.  Sneekape 
pointed  out  to  me  on  each  adamant  barricade  the 
meaning  of  the  scrollwork  ;  he  translated  the  letters  ; 
the  announcement  ran :  ' '  None  enter  the  mighty  tem- 
ple as  gods  but  by  this  ascent." 

In  the  middle  of  the  explanation  we  were  startled  by 
a  wild  cry  and  a  rush  of  the  crowd  around  us  to  the 
right-hand  parapet.  We  ran  in  the  same  direction, 
and,  hearing  a  fierce,  gruntling  noise,  looked  over  and 
saw  one  of  the  long-haired  tribe  being  devoured  by 
jackals.  To  keep  candidates  for  fame  back  from  the 
land  approach  to  the  great  stairs,  an  iron-barred  en- 
closure ran  its  whole  length  on  both  sides,  and  in  this 
lived  a  number  of  wild  beasts,  fed  upon  young  poets 
and  other  seekers  of  glory.  The  priests  and  propagat- 
ors saw  that  the  supply  was  kept  up.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  victim  had  completely  vanished  and 
his  comrades  sat  down  with  a  new  and  stirring  topic 
in  this  suicide  for  fame.  Perchance  their  wild  sym- 
pathy with  him  might  produce  such  a  poem  as  would 
open  the  gate  for  them.  They  were  soon  all  absorbed 
in  their  new  inspiration. 

In  looking  from  one  to  another  bowed  figure,  I  saw 
a  sheet  flutter  near  the  parapet  ;  I  took  it  up  and 
handed  it  to  my  companion.  He  laughed  and  said  it 
was  evidently  the  young  suicide's  bid  for  fame  ;  the 
verses  had  rhythm  and  meaning  like  this  : 

Sea-borne  strangers,  whence  are  ye? 
We  have  nought  but  sorrow  here  ; 
Fate  hath  made  you  fancy  free  ; 

^ly  this  fame-envenomed  sphere  ! 
Hell-boru  torture  would  be  bliss, 
Soul-ecstatic,  matched  with  this. 


276  Riallaro 

Ye  have  never  kuown  the  care 

Lives  within  a  heart  like  mine  ; 
Spirit  palsied  with  despair, 

Anguish  past  all  anodyne, 
Follow  me  where'er  I  flee. 
Who  can  quench  my  agony  ? 

Through  the  dawn-flushed  arch  ye  came  ; 

Bright  new  worlds  are  shining  there, 
Worlds  dispassionate  of  fame, 

Gloryless  as  they  are  fair. 
Oh  !  to  tenant  freshly  born 
Some  new  star  beyond  the  morn  ! 

Ah  !  new  life  is  stale  as  old, 

Outlook  dull  as  memory. 
Death  an  idiot's  tale  half-told, 

Hell's  own  caravansary. 
God,  if  thou  hast  in  thy  breast 

Love  or  pity,  let  me  rest ! 

Nothingness,  I  thee  implore, 

Rid  me  of  this  vacuous  dream, 
Let  me  fade  and  be  no  more, 

Be  the  phantom  that  I  seem  ! 
Sweet  Oblivion,  let  me  light 

In  annihilative  night ! 

There  was  a  loud,  coarse  laugh  behind  the  barrier  over 
this  pessimistic  effusion  and  its  baptism  of  blood,  and 
what  made  it  sound  stranger  was  that  it  rose  from  the 
midst  of  paeans  and  hosannahs  over  the  poem  that  had 
borne  the  other  aspirant  up  to  the  second  arabesque. 
The  echo  sounded  even  to  the  porch  ;  for  the  priests 
seemed  to  move  and  listen  as  in  a  dream.  I  was  eager 
to  see  the  production  that  had  stirred  such  a  commotion 
in  the  ranks  of  the  guardians  of  fame  ;  and  Sneekape 
managed  to  get  a  copy  for  me,  and  translated  it  into 
Aleofanian ;  it  must  have  suffered,  in  the  change  ;  for 


Kloriole  277 

it  was  difficult  to  see  the  superiority.     It  ran  in  rhythm 
and  sentiment  thus: 

Ye  are  only  the  van 
Of  the  army  of  niau 

That  is  marching  over  the  sea. 
Ye  would  seek  to  attain 
The  immortal  fane 

Of  the  glory  that  is  to  be. 

No  mightier  god 
Has  ever  trod 

The  crust  of  the  quaking  earth. 
He  has  come  to  assist 
In  dispelling  the  mist 
That  clings  to  thought  at  its  birth. 

Through  a  long  series  of  such  doggerel  verses  the 
composition  proceeded  ;  and  I  thought,  how  meaning- 
le.ss  the  pseans,  if  this  were  all  that  opened  the  gates  of 
literary  Fame  !  I  turned  away  from  the  sight  of  this 
sordid  injustice  and  looked  for  the  first  time  out  upon 
the  level  shores  of  the  island  that  stretched  on  either 
side  of  these  sanguinary  stairs.  And  I  was  surpri.sed 
to  find  them  full  of  men  and  women  of  look  and  figure 
and  dress  nearer  the  normal  ;  they  were  evidently  toil- 
ers with  the  hands  ;  for  they  were  muscular  in  frame 
and  tanned  by  the  weather.  They  formed,  indeed,  a 
wholesome  contrast  to  these  priests  and  worshippers  of 
fame. 

A  longing  to  be  amongst  them  seized  me,  a  kind  of 
homesickness  to  be  with  the  toilers  of  the  field  again. 
Sneekape  could  scarcely  restrain  me  from  trying  to 
leap  the  parapet  ;  he  showed  me  the  jackal-haunted 
chasm  that  I  would  fall  into  and  the  impossibility  of 
crossing  it.  He  got  the  canoe  in  to  the  lowest  step  ; 
nor  had  we  so  far  to  slither  down  ;  for  the  tide  had 


278  Riallaro 

risen;  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  were  seeking  a  place 
to  land.  At  the  risk  of  our  lives  we  managed  to  get 
on  the  beach  and  were  soon  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd. 

They  were  the  slaves  and  artisans  of  Kloriole  ;  and, 
as  it  was  now  evening,  the}'  had  finished  their  day's 
labour  and  were  engaged  in  the  usual  recreation  of  the 
countr)',  listening  to  or  making  songs  and  ballads.  It 
was  a  babel  rippled  with  snatches  of  melody.  I  could 
catch  no  intelligible  phrase,  nor  could  Sneekape  help 
me  much  ;  for  thej'  did  not  write  or  print  their  pro- 
ductions, and  they  composed  them  in  the  popular 
dialect. 

Just  as  the  westering  sun  was  tinging  the  zenith 
with  gold,  one  ballad  seemed  to  run  like  wildfire 
through  the  clustering  singers,  and  at  last  was  caught 
up  and  chanted  b}^  the  whole  multitude.  It  had  a  fine 
symphonic  oscillation,  and  the  bodies  of  the  group  and 
the  movements  of  the  great  sea  of  heads  swayed  with 
the  waves  of  its  sound.  At  last  a  cry  rose  above  it  and 
spread  until  it  extinguished  the  fire  of  song  :  "  To  the 
temple  !  "  and  I  saw  raised  on  the  shoulders  of  two 
stalwart  artisans  a  feeble-looking  child  with  an  over- 
developed head  and  outstanding  eyes.  The  multitude 
began  to  move  round  a  cliff  and  then  along  a  path  that 
wound  hither  and  thither  up  the  hill.  The}'  kept 
chanting  the  song  till  they  reached  another  and  far 
greater  porch  of  the  temple  on  its  landward  side.  With 
huge  crowbars  they  pried  open  the  doors  and  burst  into 
the  vast  edifice.  It  was  niched  from  floor  to  dome 
with  innumerable  shell-formed  recesses,  gaily  painted 
and  ornamented  ;  and  into  most  of  these  were  thrust, 
often  jammed,  a  dozen  or  more  mummies  with  labels 
and  printed  sheets  liberally  stuck  over  them  ;  peering 
to  the  back  of  them  I  could  see  that  most  of  those 


Kloriole  279 

behind  the  front  row  were  falling  to  dust,  their  sheets  all 
yellow  with  age.  It  was  often  diflBcult  to  distinguish 
mummy  from  mummy  or  dust  from  dust  ;  and  there 
was  throughout  the  building,  large  though  it  was,  a 
smell  as  of  a  charnel-house  ;  the  movements  and 
breath  of  the  crowd  seemed  to  shake  out  the  forgotten 
atoms  of  the  famous  dead. 

These,  Sneekape  explained,  were  the  embalmed 
bodies  and  productions  of  the  successful  worshippers 
of  fame,  preserved  to  immortality.  I  saw  in  some  of 
the  niches  dusty  forms  of  priests  move,  most  of  them 
greybeards,  and  read  the  yellow  sheets  in  the  dusk,  or 
rake  for  them  in  the  commingled  dust.  These,  I  was 
told,  were  the  scholar-priests  who  tried  to  arrange  and 
furbish  the  fretwork  of  dusty  death.  But  it  seemed  to 
me  that  they  helped  even  more  than  the  trampling 
multitude  to  distribute  the  remains  of  mortality  into 
the  atmosphere  and  the  lungs. 

The  priests  and  their  followers  shot  scornful  glances 
at  the  rudely  surging  mob;  but  without  effect.  Then 
they  raised  their  paper  lashes  that  had  made  the  wor- 
shippers on  the  stairs  writhe  with  pain  ;  but  they 
sounded  feeble  and  childish  against  the  noise  of  the 
chanting  crowd  ;  and  their  strokes  seemed  to  have  no 
more  effect  than  if  applied  to  the  billows  of  the  sea. 
The  singing  multitude  swept  on  up  the  long  aisles  of 
the  edifice,  and  with  a  crash  the  adamant  arabesque 
that  hedged  in  the  shrine  of  the  deity  fell  before  it. 
The  brawny  arms  of  the  bearers  perched  the  child  on 
the  altar,  and  the  priests,  cowed  and  silent,  had  to 
accept  him  as  one  destined  to  be  sustained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  temple  and  at  death  to  be  placed  in  the 
niches  of  immortalit}'.  Under  the  goad  of  fear,  they 
had  to  leave  their  obeisances  and  fulsome  adulation 


28o  Riallaro 

before  their  favourites  who  had  been  admitted  up  the 
flights  from  the  sea  into  the  precincts  of  the  deity,  and 
give  all  their  ceremonial  eulogy  to  this  illegitimate 
bantling  of  fame.  In  comparing  the  new  object  of  their 
adoration  with  those  from  whom  they  now  turned,  I 
could  see  little  difference  either  in  grace  or  intelligence. 
Those  who  had  been  admitted  by  the  recognised  ascent 
were  most  of  them  flabby  boys  or  3'ouths,  fattened  by 
luxury  and  robbed  by  vanit}'  of  the  little  native  intel- 
ligence they  had  had  ;  a  few  were  old  men  in  their 
dotage,  whose  every  foolish  word  and  act  was  caught 
up  by  acolytes  and  recorded. 

I  turned  to  Sneekape  for  an  explanation.  We  had 
kept  close  together,  lest  the  jostling  crowd  should  do 
us  harm  iu  the  worship  of  their  bantling.  His  face 
was  puckered  up  in  a  derisive  smile.  "  This  is  the  re- 
sult of  their  devotion  to  what  the}'  think  fame.  Their 
literary  art  has  become  child's  play,  an  exercise  in 
what  they  call  style.  These  priests  and  acolytes,  who 
have  wrung  out  of  the  anguished  labour  of  the  common 
people  this  gorgeous  temple  and  its  endowments,  have 
gradually  formulated  into  exact  rule  all  the  points  of 
poem  or  prose  that  would  admit  a  writer  to  the  shrine 
as  a  sharer  in  its  sustenance  and  glor5^  It  can  be  al- 
most automatically  decided  what  is  worthy  of  eternal 
fame  and  what  is  not.  They  pride  themselves  on  this 
mathematical  precision.  Of  course  this  means  the 
exclusion  of  all  idea  or  fact  or  utility  from  the  litera- 
ture; all  that  is  required  is  the  form,  and  if  that  comes 
up  to  the  recognised  standard  and  conforms  to  the 
rules  which  we  saw  the  candidates  at  the  bottom  of 
the  stairs  continually  consulting,  then  the  writer  is 
raised  flight  by  flight  to  the  shrine.  The  compositions 
have  come  to  be  empty  and  meaningless  ;  their  chief 


Kloriole  281 

merit  is  that  they  have  a  kind  of  melod3^     They  must 
be  according  to  the  received  convention. 

"  Through  the  ages,  then,  the  stage  of  life  at  which 
the  talent  for  such  work  is  found  has  been  growing 
lower  and  lower;  and  now  mothers  watch  anxiously  in 
the  cradles  for  the  lisping  of  numbers  ;  the}^  record  the 
most  infantile  chatterings  and  send  them  forth  as 
mystic  compositions  ;  and  these  priests,  who  are  also 
interpreters,  profess  to  find  in  them  the  most  profound 
wisdom.  I  have  not  heard  yet  of  a  babe  in  arms  being 
admitted  to  full  literary  fame;  but  the  day  is  evidently 
near  when  only  sucklings  and  idiots  will  have  any 
chance  of  success  amongst  guardians  who  adopt  such 
ideals  and  such  mechanical  rules,  and  who  profess  to 
find  depth  of  thought  in  what  comes  only  from  the 
lips.  The  truth  is  that  the  priests  and  propagators  de- 
sire to  keep  the  whole  emoluments  of  the  temple  for 
their  own  benefit.  Mere  children  will  never  interfere 
with  their  power  or  their  allotment  of  fame.  When 
they  grow  up  into  youth,  they  either  vanish  or  are 
absorbed  into  the  priestly  ranks,  and  the  guardians, 
those  that  have  the  fame  of  old  age,  vote  themselves  the 
most  lucrative  and  elevated  posts.  For  themselves  they 
keep  their  loftiest  eulogies,  their  wildest  devotion  ; 
they  form  mutually  admiring  and  advancing  groups  ; 
they  have  no  praise  for  those  who  will  not  praise  them 
or  be  likely  to  praise  them.  This  habit  has  spread 
as  a  contagion  right  down  the  flights  of  the  ascent. 
No  wind  is  lent  to  raise  a  fioat  unless  the  service  is  sure 
to  be  repaid.  All  the  middle-aged  about  the  temple  or 
the  steps  are  priests,  acolytes,  or  propagators.  Child- 
ren and  old  men  are  the  subdeities  of  fame,  almost  as 
easily  managed  as  unseen  gods,  and  as  easil}-  disposed 
of.      The  literature  has  reached  the  level  of  first  or 


282  Riallaro 

second  childhood ;  it  is  an  exercise  in  the  art  of  saying 
nothing  in  the  most  melodious  or  mystic  way,  and  in 
the  conventional  form.  Creation  and  criticism  have 
both  become  ceremonial,  automatic  arts,  that  have  been 
switched  off  from  the  influence  of  the  imagination  and 
ever}'  other  faculty  of  the  soul.  Vacuity  veiled  in 
mystery  is  what  those  long-haired  candidates  we  left 
on  the  sea-flight  have  not  learned  and  cannot  learn, 
and  they  must  remain  there  or  leave  ;  unless  they  ac- 
quire the  other  great  art,  that  of  interflation  or  mutual 
windbagging. 

"It  is  the  natural  development  of  a  community  in 
which  one  half  are  creators  and  the  other  half  critics 
by  profession.  The  latter  absorb  the  reality  of  power 
and  luxury  and  fame;  the  former  get  the  shadow. 
The  critics  pretend  to  worship  creation  ;  they  are  the 
gods,  for  thej^  have  the  omniscience  ;  the}^  give  the 
rules  and  the  ideals  that  are  thought  divine;  to.  their 
fiat  the  others  have  to  bow\  The)'  have  enslaved  the 
intelligence  of  the  island  and  are  graduallj-  stifling  it, 
that  there  may  be  as  little  chance  of  outbreak  as  might 
come  from  beasts.  Such  popular  riots  as  we  have  seen 
to-day  make  them  tremble  for  their  power  and  privi- 
leges. The  uneducated  people,  trained  in  nothing  but 
to  worship  what  the  priests  of  fame  profess  to  adore, 
feel  at  times  the  old  musical  and  imaginative  instincts 
surge  up  in  them,  and  they  rush  in  rhythmic  passion  to 
immortalise  the  singer  who  has  resuscitated  the  old  nat- 
ure in  them.  They  are  supposed  not  to  know  what 
literature  or  song  is;  but  they  have  caught  the  contag- 
ion from  the  singing  in  the  temple  and  on  the  stairs, 
and  they  encourage  their  offspring  to  attempt  ambi- 
tious literary  flight  from  the  cradle  upwards  ;  for  is  it 
not  something  to  be  the  parent  of  a  subdeity  of  Fame  ? 


Kloriole  283 

Amongst  them  alone  is  the  true  sense  of  natural  song 
unobliterated  ;  and  occasionally  in  their  dialect  some 
native,  untaught  genius  gathers  its  music  round  an  old 
memory  or  emotion,  and  the  result  is  a  lyric  that  sets 
their  whole  buried  natures  on  fire  ;  no  priestly  power 
can  repress  the  volcanic  outburst,  and  a  new  idol  is  set 
up  in  the  temple," 

We  saw  the  people  retire  and  find  their  way  down  to 
the  lower  levels  as  the  night  fell.  We  followed  and 
found  shelter  till  the  morning.  Not  long  after  day- 
break they  filed  away  to  their  tasks  in  the  fields  and 
the  workshops,  and  the  incident  of  the  previous  day 
was  evidently  forgotten. 

After  a  meal  Sneekape  led  me  over  a  spur  of  the  hill 
to  a  rising  ground  that  commanded  a  deep  valley  into 
which  the  sun  never  seemed  to  come,  so  filled  with 
shadow  and  gloom  was  it,  so  walled  off  from  the  world 
of  light. 

We  serpentined  down  half-way  into  it  till  our  ej-es 
grew  accustomed  to  the  obscurity  ;  and  then  I  could 
discern  figures  like  the  scholar-priests  moving  about  at 
the  bottom  of  a  fissure  filled  with  bones  and  yellow 
shreds  of  parchment  or  some  other  stuff  that  could 
withstand  the  weather.  Some  were  turning  over  and 
raking  this  graveyard  and  some  were  intent  upon  yel- 
low fragments  they  had  found. 

This  was  the  valley  of  dead  ambitions  and  dead  lit- 
erature. Into  this  the  literary  kites  that  had  their 
threads  cut  b}-  the  snippers  generally  fell.  Hither 
were  brought  the  dusty  remains  of  the  mummies  that 
had  decayed  with  their  writings  past  recognition  in  the 
niches  of  the  temple.  It  was  the  charnel-house  of  the 
great  sanctuary.  Here  were  half  the  scholar-priests 
trying  to  find  intelligible  relics  of  the  past,  that  they 


284  Riallaro 

might  by  resuscitating  them  place  their  treasure  and 
themselves  in  some  higher  niche. 

And  Sneekape  closed  his  explanation  with  a  sneer. 
"  Here  they  toss  most  of  the  infants  of  fame  who  are 
not  astute  or  worldly  enough  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the 
ecclesiastics.  The  child  we  saw  enthroned  on  the  altar 
yesterday  will  be  starved  out,  and,  if  he  does  not  escape 
and  return  to  his  slave-mother  to  sink  into  happy  ob- 
scurity, his  bones  will  soon  be  found  in  this  gehenna. 
The  people,  though  they  continue  to  sing  his  songs, 
will  utterly  forget  him  ;  and  this  the  priests  knew 
well,  when  they  ceased  their  resistance  yesterday." 

I  looked  down  to  the  ghouls  that  battened  below 
us  on  the  hideous  past  ;  I  looked  up  to  the  great  edi- 
fice that  dominated  the  island  ;  and  I  remembered 
the  vaunting  inscriptions  that  decorated  its  interior. 
"  Here  dwell  the  immortals  "  ;  "  Who  enter  here  never 
die  "  ;  "  The  gaze  of  all  men  is  upon  us  "  ;  "  The  centre 
of  the  universe."  The  valley  of  death  and  oblivion 
was  the  natural  complement  of  this  hill  of  arrogance 
and  self-righteousness. 

My  companion  laughed  at  the  sharp  antithesis,  and 
wished  to  go  down  into  the  valley  of  drj^  bones  to  en- 
joy the  folly  of  the  rakers  and  the  readers.  In  gloom 
and  dejection  I  climbed  the  spur  again  and  fled  down 
to  the  beach.  It  was  too  ghastly  a  comment  on  the 
whole  civilised  world  to  linger  over.  If  only  I  could 
wipe  it  from  the  mind  !  The  mortal  dust  of  the  im- 
mortals clung  to  my  nostrils  and  throat.  Heedless  of 
the  danger  I  plunged  into  the  sea,  and  was  soon  on 
board  the  canoe.  Sneekape  did  not  wish  to  lose  me, 
and  was  beside  me  before  I  could  raise  the  paddle. 
As  we  got  into  the  current  again  and  swept  past 
and  away  from  the  islet,  we  could  see  the  stairs  still 


Kloriole 


285 


crowded  with  the  candidates  and  the  priests  absorbed 
in  their  pursuit  of  fame  ;  and  not  one  of  them  turned 
to  see  us  drifting  away.  It  was  ahnost  the  time  of 
stars  before  we  had  our  last  glimpse  of  Kloriole.  The 
cupolas  of  the  temple  still  threw  its  glory  back  upon 
the  sun  from  beneath  the  horizon  till  it  was  difficult  to 
tell  them  from  the  golden  light  on  the  domed  billows. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 


M 


SWOOXARIE 

Y  fellow-voyager  lay  down  to  sleep  as  soon  as  the 
field  of  night  above  us  broke  into  its  myriad 
flowers.  I  could  not  sleep  for  the  thought  of  that 
wretched  miniature  of  the  great  world  ;  I  could  not 
forget  the  suicide  and  his  poem,  the  wild  ecstasies  of 
the  neophytes,  the  poor  little  dropsical-headed  poet  of 
the  people  left  to  weep  and  starve  in  the  gorgeous 
temple,  or  the  murk}^  fissure  of  the  dead  with  its 
mortuary  vultures.  Wearied  out  at  last  with  the 
sombre  thoughts,  and  in  spite  of  the  heaving  of  the 
canoe,  I  fell  asleep  at  the  paddle  ;  and  chaotic  medleys 
of  all  I  had  just  seen  made  new  visions  that  wakened 
me  in  terror  to  feel  ostracised  and  forlorn  under  the 
eyes  of  infinity ;  and  it  was  as  cheerless  to  sleep  as  to 
wake  with  this  nightmare  of  the  world  and  its  ambi- 
tions pressing  in  upon  me. 

The  long  night  span  itself  out  into  a  thread  of  dreams 
and  reveries  ;  at  times  it  was  hard  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  vision  of  sleep  and  the  vision  of  waking,  so 
closely  did  they  twilight  into  each  other.  Even  when 
the  cold  gleam  of  daybreak  shimmered  over  the  waves 
it  was  difficult  to  unravel  the  tangle  of  dream  and 
thought;  pictures,  half  real,  half  unreal,  filmed  over  my 

2S6 


Swoonarie  287 

senses  ;  the  very  air,  as  the  sun  languished  into  sight 
from  behind  his  sultry  curtains,  became  dreamful,  the 
wind  and  sea  fell,  and  a  trance-like  silence  filled  the 
dome  of  sky.  We  had  passed  into  a  charmed  sphere. 
Languor  welled  through  me  till  I  dropped  my  paddle 
and  stretched  along  the  bottom  of  the  canoe,  floating 
on  the  surface  of  sleep. 

My  companion  I  found  trying  to  waken  me.  He 
was  steeped  in  drowsiness  himself;  but  the  grating  of 
the  boat  on  some  bank  had  roused  him  ;  he  could  not 
get  to  land  without  help.  In  a  sluggish,  half-vegetat- 
ive state  I  got  up,  and  we  seemed  to  paddle  through 
an  unending  series  of  shallows  that  entangled  the 
canoe.  The  exercise  at  last  broke  our  torpor,  and  with 
a  few  vigorous  strokes  we  reached  land. 

It  lay  so  low,  as  far  as  eye  could  reach,  that  the  sea 
in  tempest  must  take  possession.  Yet  we  saw  human 
beings  move  in  the  distance.  At  first  we  thought  that 
they  were  cattle  grazing,  so  slowly  and  spasmodically 
did  they  trail  along  and  so  low  did  they  bend  their 
heads. 

We  got  on  shore.  Only  vigorous  movement  kept 
us  out  of  the  comatose  state  that  threatened  us  every 
moment.  We  saw  men  and  women  stretched  on  the 
sand;  but  we  could  not  get  them  to  take  any  notice 
of  us,  and  we  had  strong  desires  to  drowse  prostrate 
too.  We  struggled  on  over  the  opiate  plain,  till  at  last 
we  found  the  ground  rise  gently.  Our  limbs  quick- 
ened, our  senses  began  to  grow  nimble,  and  when  we 
were  high  enough  to  look  out  over  the  island  and  the 
sea,  we  had  completely  recovered  from  our  lethargy. 

We  reached  a  cluster  of  dilapidated  huts,  that  turned 
out  to  be  mere  roofings  of  pits  dug  in  the  earth.  Men 
and  women  were  working  here  and  there,  but  paid  little 


288  Riallaro 

attention  to  us  when  we  spoke  to  them.  Sneekape  at 
last  found  one  who  looked  up,  as  he  was  addressed  in 
Aleofanian  ;  and,  after  a  long  series  of  vigorous  efforts 
and  questionings,  he  left  off  his  slumberous  stjde  of 
digging  and  answered  in  droning,  far-off  tones  that 
sounded  like  the  echo  of  muffled  bells.  There  was  a 
somnolent  look  in  his  great  cow-like  eyes,  covering 
what  might  have  been  depths  of  intelligence  and  emo- 
tion, or  what  might  have  been  nothing  at  all.  We 
followed  him  to  a  bench  outside  of  his  rooftree,  and  we 
sank  down  on  it  with  a  sense  of  seeming  collapse. 

After  a  space  our  senses  shook  off  their  torpor  and 
drew  themselves  together,  and  we  found  in  slow  and 
measured  question  and  answer  that  he  had  no  desire  to 
know  us  or  be  known  bj^  us  ;  he  was  too  busy  upon  a 
vital  problem  to  feel  any  interest  in  other  matters.  It 
was  this  we  discovered  on  much  inquiry  :  whether 
worms  could  be  taught  to  do  all  the  agricultural  opera- 
tions of  a  farm  ;  they  were  the  ploughers,  manurers, 
sowers,  and  harvesters  ;  but  thej-  were  all  these  at 
once  ;  he  had  been  experimenting  for  years  to  get 
them  to  divide  their  various  operations  over  the  appro- 
priate seasons.  He  seemed  harassed  that  we  had  inter- 
rupted him  in  attempting  to  fence  off  his  ploughing 
worms  from  his  harvesters.  There  was  just  one  link 
wanting,  and  when  he  found  it  he  would  reform  the 
agriculture  of  the  world. 

We  had  to  leave  him  to  his  problem  ;  he  sank  into 
it  as  into  a  pit  of  sleep.  We  noticed  as  we  passed 
along  his  domain  that  there  was  not  a  green  blade  or 
shoot  to  be  seen  anywhere  ;  his  workers  had  evidently 
harvested  the  estate. 

The  next  man  we  came  across  was  too  busy  hedging 
round  his  shadow  to  attend  to  us.    It  gave  him  infinite 


Swoonarie  289 

trouble.  If  only  he  could  fix  it  down  and  get  it  secured 
in  a  net,  he  could  make  his  fortune  by  exporting  it  to 
equatorial  climates,  to  cool  down  the  temperature  and 
reduce  the  glare. 

Everyone  we  met  was  absorbed  in  some  problem, 
and  had  no  time  to  spare  for  idle  questions  like  ours. 
They  were  ready  enough  to  talk  about  their  experi- 
ments and  discoveries  ;  but  anything  else  was  futile  ; 
they  at  once  dropped  from  consciousness,  and  no  effort 
could  awaken  them.  We  always  tried  to  get  at  their 
favourite  project  in  order  to  lead  them  on  to  the  inform- 
ation we  required.  We  laid  siege  to  dozens  without 
avail  ;  any  divergence  from  their  great  scheme  at  once 
hypnotised  them. 

One  was  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  exhaust  the  atmo- 
sphere in  order  that  the  pure  ether  might  descend  upon 
the  world  and  make  them  capable  of  flight.  Another 
was  busy  upon  a  rope-making  machine  that  would 
twist  light  into  strands  so  that  men  might  draw  the  sun 
nearer  when  they  needed  more  heat  and  light,  or  make 
out  of  the  beams  of  any  star  a  rope  ladder  whereby  they 
might  climb  to  it.  A  neighbour  of  his  was  just  on  the 
point  of  di.scovering  a  crucible  that  would  extract  silver 
from  the  lustre  of  the  stars.  One  had  invented  a  shovel 
that  could  level  all  the  mountains  into  plains,  if  onlj^ 
he  had  the  force  for  it,  and  he  was  attempting"  to  or- 
ganise a  company  to  supply  the  force.  Another  had 
made  a  machine  that  would  tunnel  to  the  centre  of  the 
earth  ;  and  he  was  about  to  form  an  association  for 
working  it  ;  he  said  that  one  result  alone  would  enrich 
them  beyond  dreams  :  they  could  make  a  market  for 
the  precious  metals  near  the  centre  of  the  earth,  where 
they  would  have  greatly  increased  weight.  His  neigh- 
bour was  in  the  way  to  discover  antigravitation,   by 


290  Riallaro 

which  they  might  be  able  to  do  what  they  liked  with 
the  stars  and  the  universes.  The  next  man  we  met 
had  a  scheme  for  the  annihilation  of  all  intoxicants 
throughout  the  world  ;  and  to  induce  men  to  agree  to 
it  he  would  supply  ailool,  their  favourite  narcotic,  in- 
stead ;  the  world  needed  sleep,  not  excitement. 

Other  projects  and  inventions  that  were  in  hand,  we 
found,  were:  to  teach  spiders  to  make  all  the  garments 
men  needed,  and  ants  to  be  providers  for  the  human 
race;  to  mass  insect-power  in  order  to  drive  engines;  to 
yoke  birds  together  for  aerial  navigation  and  carriage; 
to  utilise  the  waste  breath  of  men  for  turning  windmills; 
to  run  a  road  back  through  time  as  through  space,  that 
we  might  eject  our  worst  faults  from  our  ancestors;  to 
distil  the  divine  essence  out  of  the  ether  in  order  to 
supply  it  in  bottles  to  religionists  all  the  world  over  for 
ceremonies  and  miracles;  and  to  drive  a  conduit  back 
into  the  age  when  the  gods  were  present  in  the  world, 
so  as  to  deliver  direct  inspiration  from  them  at  a  few 
pence  a  gallon. 

We  got  weary  of  attempting  to  extract  any  piece 
of  information  available  for  our  purpose.  There  was 
not  a  scheme  but  had  only  one  link  wanting  to  make  it 
a  success.  I  had  been  at  first  inclined  to  pit}'  these 
men  and  women, — their  lives  seemed  so  pathetically 
futile, — but  I  changed  my  emotion  when  I  saw  that, 
however  long  they  had  been  at  their  project,  they 
never  lost  the  brightest  hopes  of  it  ;  they  were  the 
happiest  of  mortals,  so  absorbed  in  their  one  thought, 
that  care  and  sorrow  could  not  approach  them.  Nature 
gave  them  enough  in  most  years  to  support  them  ;  and 
when  famine  came  they  ate  their  opiate,  ailool,  and 
stretched  themselves  upon  their  narcotic  plain.  The 
vultures  were  their  sextons  and  did  the  rest. 


Swoonarie 


291 


Sneekape  never  ceased  to  sneer  at  them  or  find  food 
for  pett}^  laughter  in  their  enthusiasms  and  absorption. 
Before  we  left  them  I  felt  the  keenest  envy  of  their 
happy  unconsciousness  of  the  stings  of  time. 


CHAPTER   XXVII 


FEXERALIA 


WE  got  at  last  to  the  highest  point  of  the  island, 
and  thence  we  saw  on  the  other  shore  a  large 
falla  at  anchor.  Sueekape  came  as  close  to  ecstasy  as 
such  a  petty  nature  could  ;  he  recognised  her  as  one 
from  his  own  island  ;  at  this  period  of  the  j-ear  they 
were  able  to  bargain  for  the  best  females  from  Swoonarie 
for  use  in  his  country  ;  now  was  the  time  when  they 
were  most  hypnotised  b}'  their  narcotic  atmosphere  or 
their  problems  ;  and  it  was  easy  to  take  the  most  beau- 
tiful, healthy,  and  dreamy-natured.  These  sleepy 
denizens  of  Swoonarie  were  great  breeders,  and  their 
women  when  young  had  a  dreamy  grace  that  made 
them  especiall}^  attractive  to  a  race  of  active,  marauding 
disposition  ;  away  from  their  opiate  plain  and  atmo- 
sphere and  the  seductions  of  their  ailool,  the  blood  in 
their  veins  grew  almost  active  and  touched  their  peachy 
cheeks  with  bloom  ;  their  dark  eyes  languished  with 
slumberous  light  ;  their  limbs  moved  as  in  a  dream- 
dance  ;  their  voices  grew  as  sweet  and  far-off  as  the 
scarce-caught  echo  of  lapsing  rivers,  or  the  low  sigh  of 
wind  through  grass;  their  thoughts  and  passions  would 
rise  at  times  out  of  the  dim  abyss  of  dreams  in  wild, 
consuming  tempests.     This  falla-load,  if  it  had  been 

292 


Feneralia  293 

well  selected,  would  fetch  an  enormous  price  and  fill 
the  treasury  of  the  state. 

We  posted  as  quickly  as  our  sleep-viscous  limbs  and 
faculties  would  permit  down  towards  the  beach  ;  and 
soon  we  were  on  board  of  a  luxuriously  fitted  galleon, 
the  largest  I  had  ever  seen  in  the  archipelago.     Off 
shore  the  glutinous  lethargy  that  had  clogged  every 
pore  of  our  being  seemed  to  melt  and  move  with  the 
blood.     Sneekape  was  soon  closeted  with  the  leaders  of 
the  enterprise  ;  and  after  the  interview  I  was  admitted 
to  their  fulsome  salutations  and  oppressively  eager  ac- 
.  quaintanceship.     The  women  were  in  the  middle  of  the 
ship  ;  for  I  could  hear  a  faint,  confused  hum  that  rose 
at  times  into  the  muffled  sounds  of  feminine  voices. 
Towards  evening  the  swish  of  paddles  was  heard,  and 
going  on  deck  I  saw  through  the  thickening  gossamer 
of  twilight  a  canoe  approach.     It  grated  against  the 
bulwarks,  and  the  men  leaped  on  board  and  drew  up 
after  them  some  mantled  and  swathed  figures  that  must 
have  been  another  instalment  of  women.     There  was  a 
hurried  consultation,  and  the  anchors  were  lifted.     The 
great  paddles  were  set  in  motion  ;  but  before  the  sails 
bellied  with  the  wind  that  blew  outside  the  shelter  of 
the  island  the  whizz  of  an  arrow  struck  on  my  ear  ; 
the  missile  sliced  the  water  not  many  yards  astern. 
Towards  the  shore  dark  objects  moved  in  the  dim  light, 
but  the  wind  had  now  given  the  keel  and  helm  firm 
grip,  and  no  paddles  could  overtake  us.     The  exped- 
ition had  just  escaped  its  greatest  danger,— an  attack 
from  the  fierce  Feneralians  for  poaching  on  their  pre- 
serves.    Most  of  the.se  voyages  to  Swoonarie  ended  in 
bloodshed,  and  it  often  happened  that  neither  falla  nor 
crew  ever  returned. 

I   had  full  opportunity  on  the  voyage  of   hearing 


294  Riallaro 

about  these  neighbours  of  the  dreamers;  for  it  fell  calm, 
when  we  had  got  out  of  sight  of  land,  and  the  paddles 
propelled  the  ship  at  but  a  slow  pace.  Feneralia  was  an 
island  to  which  had  been  deported  for  centuries  all  the 
habitual  bankrupts  of  the  archipelago.  It  will  scarcely 
be  believed  in  the  communities  of  Christendom,  and  it 
was  long  before  I  could  be  brought  to  credit  the  story. 
But  Sneekape  asserted  again  and  again  that  a  species 
of  financial  madness  often  seizes  some  of  the  more 
luxurious  of  the  peoples  on  the  islands  ;  they  imagine 
that  they  have  been  specially  commissioned  by  heaven 
to  spend  ;  they  have  a  fixed  idea  that  mankind  is 
naturally  portioned  off  into  the  earners  and  the 
spenders,  and  the  latter  are  as  rare  as  creative  genius 
upon  earth  ;  they  are  angelic  spirits  that  have  aban- 
doned their  birthright  to  the  infinite,  and  wandered 
down  into  a  world  condemned  to  labour  and  acquisi- 
tion ;  they  are  beams  of  heavenly  light  let  in  upon  the 
darkness  of  a  race  given  over  to  wage-earning.  In 
some  communities  their  story  of  divine  mission  is  ac- 
cepted ;  they  are  made  politicians  and  statesmen,  and 
the  public  treasury  is  handed  over  to  them  to  do  with 
as  they  please  ;  some  new  tax  or  loan  is  ever  demand- 
ing their  powers  of  expenditure  ;  and  how  to  turn  the 
plus  into  a  minus  almost  wears  them  to  a  shadow.  In 
other  communities  they  have  been  smiled  at  as  harm- 
less madmen  till  they  have  grown  subtly  skilful  and 
ingenious  in  inventing  new  methods  of  getting  com- 
mand of  the  surplus  earnings  of  their  neighbours  ;  to 
gratif}^  the  moral  weakness  of  their  fellow-citizens  they 
become  periodically  bankrupt,  and  start  again  on  their 
virtuous  mission  to  turn  the  needless  plus  of  some  other 
plutocratic  locality  into  a  minus.  When  their  divine 
mission  has  thus  come  to  be  considered  harmless  lunacy, 


Feneralia  295 

they  are  given  the  alternative  of  joining  the  altruists 
on  Tirralaria  or  being  deported  to  Feneralia.  This 
was  an  island  originally  of  great  fertility  and  natural 
powers,  but  nothing  would  now  grow  onit,  and  the 
inhabitants  in  order  to  live  had  to  become  the  buc- 
caneers of  the  archipelago.  They  called  themselves 
philanthropists  ;  for  they  loved  their  fellow-men  so 
much  that  they  were  ever  relieving  them  of  unneces- 
sary burdens  and  spending  for  them  that  which  they 
had  nev^er  learned  to  spend  for  themselves.  Another 
favourite  name  that  they  adopted  was  financiers  ;  they 
were  ever  sailing  out  on  great  loan  expeditions  ;  they 
would  land  in  force  on  an  island,  advertise  a  huge  loan 
with  the  attraction  of  a  large  percentage,  pay  the  first 
interest  out  of  the  capital  and  vanish  forever  with  the 
rest.  If  they  went  back  there,  they  had  some  other 
scheme  to  cover  their  philanthropy  :  for  example,  a 
company  to  extract  gold  from  sea-water  or  silver  from 
starlight,  destined  to  make  all  the  shareholders  rich. 
Sneekape  held  thajt  they  were  nothing  but  freebooters. 

On  these  financial  raids  thej^  generally  employed 
some  of  the  mild-eyed  dreamers  of  Swoonarie  to  mask 
their  batteries.  These  had  always  some  fine  scheme 
on  hand  that  needed  money  to  make  it  coin  gold,  and 
by  their  simplicity  they  easily  drew  a  community  into 
belief  in  their  dream  ;  when  the  money  was  secured,  a 
Feneralian  force  was  ready  to  make  off  with  it  and 
repel  any  attempt  to  reclaim  it  ;  and  when  any  people 
tried  to  retaliate  on  Swoonarie,  or  make  reprisals,  or  in- 
jure it  in  any  waj^  the}^  swooped  down  on  the  invaders 
with  their  bloodthirsty  manners  and  cheerful  arrogance. 

Thej^  were  the  spenders  of  the  world  ;  the  rest  of 
mankind  were  the  earners.  They  would  not  hear  of 
joining  with  the  Tirralarians.     Socialists  !     Not  they. 


296  Riallaro 

They  did  not  believe  in  the  equalit}^  of  men ;  there  were 
at  least  two  levels,  that  of  themselves  and  that  of  all 
other  men;  they  had  the  appetites  and  the  appreciation 
of  enjoyment  ;  the  rest  of  the  world  was  their  purse  ; 
what  did  Heaven  mean  by  such  specialisation  but  that 
the  one  set  was  to  serv^e  the  other  ?  It  was  only  the 
lack  of  numbers  that  prevented  their  carr3ang  out  the 
scheme  of  nature  in  its  entirety.  It  was  this  that  made 
them  starve  for  months  on  their  now  barren  island, 
whilst  their  harvest  was  preparing  in  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Ignorance  blinded  the  wage-earners  to  the 
true  object  of  their  earning  and  made  them  fight  to  re- 
tain the  result  ;  if  only  they  could  open  their  ^3'es  and 
look  at  things  as  they  are  in  reality,  the}^  would  see 
that  it  was  meant  for  the  appetite-bearers,  the  Feneral- 
ians.  So  these  latter  were  often  kept  out  of  their 
rights,  and  had  to  fight  to  the  death  for  them.  They 
were  often  cooped  up  in  their  island  by  the  stupid 
savages,  who  would  not  listen  to  the  voice  of  nature 
and  justice.  Periodical  raids  were  made  upon  them 
by  way  of  retaliation  ;  but  it  had  been  impossible  to 
clear  out  this  nest  of  pirates,  as  other  men  called  it ;  this 
home  of  philanthropy,  their  own  name  for  it.  It  was 
ever  being  recruited  by  the  unearning  spenders  who 
had  failed  to  make  the  people  in  their  own  islands  be- 
lieve in  their  divine  mission.  They  were  a  cheerful, 
active  race  that  never  abandoned  hope  even  in  the 
midst  of  starvation,  and  never  lost  their  patronising 
manners  even  when  clad  in  rags.  They  were  the 
natural  lords  of  creation,  dethroned  by  their  slaves,  the 
earners  and  fortune-makers.  Some  communities  were 
wise  enough  to  recognise  their  genius  and  make  them 
their  statesmen.  The  millennium  would  never  arrive 
till  all  communities  did  the  same. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

THE   VOYAGE   AND   THE   WRECK 

WHETHER  this  was  a  mere  fable  I  was  never 
able  to  verify  by  personal  experience.  Christ- 
endom will  doubtless  take  it  as  wholly  the  creation  of 
Sneekape's  brain,  so  unlike  nature  does  it  seem.  The 
only  feature  that  I  could  vouch  for  as  fact  was  the  war- 
like attack  as  we  weighed  anchor  from  Swoonarie.  I 
was  awakened  from  my  meditation  over  the  question 
by  a  low  murmur  from  the  women's  section;  I  listened, 
and  was  certain  that  it  was  a  sleep-song  they  were 
chanting.  Sneekape  gave  me  the  drift  of  each  verse, 
and  I  tried  to  turn  it  into  the  same  metre  as  they  used: 


Snowflakes  of  starlight 

Drift  on  us  for  ever. 
Suns  lend  their  far  light, 

Transmuter  of  river 
And  slumberous  ocean 

To  shimmer  of  gold. 
Eyes  dim  with  emotion, 

Eyes  infinite-souled, 
With  magic  diaphanous 

Our  spirits  entrance  ; 
In  our  hearts,  as  they  coffin  us, 

Dreams  quiver  and  dance. 
Dead  to  our  kin  we  lie  ; 
297 


298  Riallaro 

Only  the  worlds  of  night, 
Wizards  that  charm  the  sky, 

See  our  unbodied  flight. 
Dream-winged  we  hover, 

Death-drawn  from  birth  ; 
As  lover  to  lover, 

Soul  to  its  earth. 
Break  we  the  bond  at  last, 

Breasting  the  infinite  ; 
Future  is  clear  as  past, 

Chaos  as  light. 
Afloat  on  the  stellar  deep 

Rest,  rest,  we  crave. 
Cradled  to  eyeless  sleep. 

Dream  we  from  wave  to  wave. 
Sleep,  sleep,  let  us  slumber ! 

Oh,  we  have  lived  and  fought. 
Borne  pains  without  number. 

Waken,  Oh,  waken  us  not. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  the  drowsy  sound  of  the 
melody  in  a  language,  like  English,  that  has  been 
forged  in  unflagging  struggle,  in  the  stress  of  battle 
with  the  forces  of  nature.  Generations  of  ailooled 
nerves  and  lips  had  saturated  every  word  with  languor- 
ous music.  No  cradle-song  that  I  had  ever  heard  ap- 
proached it  in  soporific  power.  All  who  sat  within 
sound  of  it  dropped  their  eyelids  ;  the  voices  began  to 
seem  distant  and  stifled.  At  times  the  music  died 
away,  and  again  it  rose  in  dim  yet  growing  echo,  at 
first  like  the  murmur  of  bees  in  the  still  summer  air, 
then  like  a  wail  swept  fitfully  by  a  breath  that  comes 
we  know  not  whence  and  vanishes  in  a  moment  ;  out 
of  unknown  depths  the  lullaby  threw  its  charm  and 
then  slowly  withdrew  it;  the  scarce-felt  gradation  of 
the  cadence  was  as  strong  in  its  hypnotic  fascination 
as  the  breeze-flung  note.     The  singers  seemed  to  fall 


The  Voyage  and  the  Wreck       299 

into  a  dream  as  they  sang.  The  words  melted  into  one 
liquid  rill  of  song.  Faint  and  muffled  its  melod}' 
floated  up  as  out  of  a  dream.  The  falla  lagged  and 
dallied  upon  the  gleaming  levels  of  the  sea  ;  it  was  the 
barge  of  sleep,  and  we  seemed  to  have  been  a  thousand 
3'ears  fettered  in  trance.  The  sound  of  the  paddles 
came  only  at  intervals,  and  then  it  ceased,  and  the 
whole  skyey  vault  and  the  weary  sea  and  the  specks 
of  being  that  traversed  it  vanished.  I  fell  countless 
fathoms  through  space.  And  then  the  existence 
snapped  short  ;  a  crash  rounded  me  up  into  the  con- 
fines of  life  again.  It  was  the  fusillade  of  the  boat- 
swain's whip.  And  before  we  were  rightly  awake  the 
ship  was  swinging  along  to  this  loud  chant  sung  at  full 
lung-pitch  by  the  paddlers  : 

We  beat  with  our  paddles  the  passionless  sea  ; 

The  flush  of  our  wounding  dies  out  on  her  face  ; 
We  dance  free  as  gods  on  her  billowy  lea  ; 
The  trail  of  our  feet  no  mortal  can  trace. 
The  life  in  our  veins 
Outgallops  all  pains. 
Allanauioulin,  Allauamoulin. 

We  slake  our  fierce  thirst  from  the  cup  of  the  sky  ; 

Its  azure  hath  fathomless  depths  to  exhaust  ; 
Translucent  within  it  worlds  numberless  lie  ; 
With  the  gold  of  the  dawn  its  rim  is  embossed. 
The  life  is  divine. 
We  drink  with  such  wine. 
Allanamoulin,  Allanamoulin. 

Our  blood  beats  in  time  with  the  palpitant  stars. 

Our  paddles  in  harmony  rise  and  fall  ; 
We  cease  from  our  labour,  and  life  is  a  farce  ; 

We  rest,  and  our  hearts  grow  weary  of  all. 


300  Riallaro 

For  life,  it  is  toil, 
And  happiness  moil. 
AUanamoulin,  Allanamoulin, 

The  grave  is  the  onl}-  repose  for  our  being  ; 

Thou  'rt  welcome.  Oh,  death  !    When  thou  wilt,  we  are  thine. 
There  's  nought  on  this  earth  that  's  worth  thinking  or  seeing, 
And  life's  fitful  fever  has  no  anodyne. 
To  work  is  to  rest ; 
To  die  is  the  best. 
Allanamoulin,  Allanamoulin. 

The  refrain  is  untranslatable  ;  it  was  as  old  as  the 
race,  I  was  told  ;  it  had  been  used  from  generation  to 
generation  in  paddle-songs,  till  it  had  grown  rounded 
and  smooth  in  the  stream  of  time  and  lost  all  trace  of 
its  inner  grain  and  force.  An  approach  to  the  meaning 
would  be,  "  Farewell,  Rest  !  There  is  none  upon 
earth."  Sneekape  and  his  friends  were  unwilling  to 
taint  their  lips  with  it;  for  it  had  been  a  .slave-word  for 
centuries  and  they  considered  it  beneath  contempt.  It 
was  difficult  even  to  get  some  translation  of  the  paddle- 
song  ;  but  verse  by  verse  and  line  by  line  I  dragged  it 
out  of  the  haughty  Figlefians. 

Yet  when  they  talked  of  their  slaves,  they  spoke  of 
them  with  leniency  and  even  with  kindness.  Pressing 
questions  home,  I  found  that  they  considered  the  lash 
one  of  the  most  benevolent  of  institutions  ;  it  softened 
the  asperities  of  slave-nature  ;  for  slaves  were  children, 
and  had  to  be  dealt  wnth  as  children  ;  they  did  not 
know  what  was  good  for  them  ;  and  their  masters  had 
to  find  out  and  insist;  their  best  welfare  was  obedience 
to  law  and  routine,  and  the  whip  administered  with 
judicious  severity  induced  obedience  and  prevented  too 
large  doses  of  this  wholesome  physic. 

It  was  the  first  outrunner  of  a  breeze  that  had  awak- 


The  Voyage  and  the  Wreck       301 

ened  the  master  of  the  paddles,  a  cool  breeze  that 
seemed  to  come  off  distant  snows.  Soon  the  falla  was 
all  bustle,  and  the  great  square  sails  that  stretched  be- 
yond the  bulwarks  twice  the  breadth  of  the  ship  were 
taut  before  the  wind.  We  spun  along  at  a  merry  rate, 
and  the  paddles  disappeared  from  the  sides.  But  it  was 
only  a  catspaw,  and  died  away.  The  sails  fell  heavily 
against  the  masts,  and  had  to  be  run  down.  The  slaves 
again  took  their  place  at  the  paddles,  and  we  lounged 
along  the  sultry  leaden  floor  of  the  sea. 

But  suddenly  there  fell  upon  us  like  the  stroke  of  a 
hammer  a  wandering  gust  ;  the  masts  creaked,  the 
loose  cordage  lashed  the  ship  in  their  fur}'  till  she  stag- 
gered. Then  all  was  still.  The  old  leaden  dulness 
came  upon  the  waters  ;  it  had  been  like  the  gleam  of 
gnashing  teeth  in  the  sullen  monotony  of  enslaved 
work.  A  yell  from  the  slaves'  quarters  punctured  the 
silence  ;  it  was  partly  from  the  whip  of  the  boatswain, 
partly  from  the  breaking  of  their  paddles  by  the  ridge 
of  water  that  swept  athwart  us.  In  five  minutes  we 
were  helpless  between  the  surly  rancour  of  the  hurri- 
cane and  the  truculent  floundering  of  the  billows.  On 
we  rushed,  staggering,  drunken,  with  horror  and  frenzy. 
The  slaves  would  not  rise  to  the  lash ;  the  officers  mut- 
tered curses  between  their  teeth,  and  did  what  they 
could  to  guide  her  course.  The  daylight  was  blind 
with  the  angry  dust  of  showers  ;  the  circle  of  grey  film 
caged  the  ship,  and  eyes  were  futile  and  weary  in  their 
frantic  eagerness  to  pierce  it.  Down  in  the  women's 
quarters  I  could  see  Sneekape  and  his  fellows  lying 
prostrate,  their  faces  in  their  hands  on  the  planks;  the 
women  were  huddled  together  in  apathetic  limpness. 

Out  of  the  wreck  that  drowned  so  many  of  the  Fig- 
lefians  I  was  rescued  by  one  of  the  slaves,  who  canoed 


;o2 


Riallaro 


me  with  his  bride  to  the  base  of  a  great  cliff.  The  tide 
was  low  :  as  high  as  we  could  reach,  the  surface  was 
rough  with  living  shells  that  moved  to  our  touch,  and 
streamers  of  seaweed  rose  and  fell  with  the  ripple.  At 
last  he  forced  the  boat  back  from  the  rocky  wall:  there 
was  strong  suction  inwards.  He  bade  us  with  a  gesture 
lie  down  flat  in  the  bottom,  whilst  he  at  the  bow  grov- 
elled with  a  hand  raised  to  the  low-valuted  rock.  We 
shot  in  underneath  into  darkness,  but  in  a  few  min- 
utes we  were  out  of  the  torrent,  moored  in  a  peaceful 
bay. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 


NOOKOO 


WE  got  on  shore  in  a  sandy  corner  of  a  great  cave; 
and  we  were  soon  asleep  from  our  great  exer- 
tions and  endurance.  When  I  awoke,  I  saw  that  the 
dome  underneath  which  we  slept  was  covered  with 
myriads  of  glowworms.  Before  long  my  eyes  grew 
accustomed  to  the  twilight  of  our  abode,  and  I  could 
see  pillars  of  gleaming  white  stretch  from  floor  to  roof, 
as  if  hewn  out  of  marble  by  the  workmen  of  some  great 
sculptor  and  then  abandoned  before  the  capitals  and 
bases  could  be  carved  into  floral  symmetr5^  Pendent 
masses  waited  for  some  architect  to  hollow  them  into 
forms  of  grace.  Vaultings  and  domings  of  countless 
variety  were  there,  needing  only  the  skilled  hand  to 
make  them  harmonise  into  marvellous  beauty.  I 
could  hear  the  rush  and  bustle  of  the  current  that  had 
borne  us  in,  as  it  swept  I  knew  not  whither.  I  looked 
to  see  the  direction,  and  was  for  the  first  time  struck  by 
the  wondrous  azure  of  the  light  that  was  around  us. 
Untroubled  depths  lay  close  to  our  resting-place  ;  and 
the  sunlight  that  shot  through  the  waters  of  the  low 
archway  bore  up  the  mingled  colour  of  the  sea  and  the 
sky  into  the  half-darkness  of  this  undercliff  cathedral  ; 
all  the  mouldings  and   groinings  of  the  vault  were 

303 


304  Riallaro 

bathed  in  a  deep  violet  light  such  as  we  see  in  rare 
skies  when  the  sun  has  long  set,  and  the  thin  moon 
stands  sicklewise  beside  the  harvest  of  the  stars.  Only 
in  our  own  shelving  niche  were  there  marks  of  the  dis- 
colouring hand  of  man  ;  the  debris  of  former  fires  lay 
scattered,  and  dark  shading  ran  up  the  marble  of  the 
roof  ;  it  had  been  used,  I  could  see,  for  generations  as 
a  camping-ground  of  recurrent  dwellers  in  the  cave. 

Our  guide  soon  had  a  fire  lit,  and  the  meal  he  cooked 
was  welcome.  As  we  ate,  he  told  me  his  story.  He 
had  with  the  aid  of  the  father  of  his  fiancee  followed  up 
a  wonderful  invention  of  his  father's,  who  had  died 
from  an  accident  in  his  researches.  It  was  a  method 
of  utilising  the  germs  of  disease  in  warfare.  Millions 
of  the  most  destructive  and  most  prolific  plague-scat- 
tering microbes  were  inclosed  in  minute  globules  for 
arrow-points  and  in  huge  bombs  for  catapults.  To 
prevent  the  plague  spreading  amongst  friends,  they  had 
also  found  a  powerful  disinfectant,  that  could  impreg- 
nate the  air  for  miles  in  a  few  minutes  and  destro}'^  all 
the  pestiferous  germs. 

A  Figlefian,  having  heard  of  the  invention,  lured 
him  into  their  island  with  the  promise  of  making  a 
hero  of  him,  but  had  enslaved  him  instead  ;  and 
he  had  lived  like  all  the  vSwoonarian  slaves,  nurs- 
ing the  hope  of  independence  and  revenge.  He  had 
been  taken  by  his  master  on  the  last  voyage,  and  had 
discovered  during  the  shipwreck  that  his  bride  was  in- 
cluded in  the  human  cargo.  He  burst  out  into  loud 
invectives  against  the  licentious  tyrants  ;  and  he  justi- 
fied his  determination  to  revenge  by  a  description  of 
their  devilish  lechery  and  intrigue. 

When  the  story  was  finished,  his  bride  had  disap- 
peared ;  and  we  followed  her  along  the  gallery  that 


Nookoo  .^o 


O^D 


edged  the  torrent.  We  came  across  her  seated  upon  a 
broken  stalagmite,  but  as  we  sat  down  near  her  on 
a  shelf  that  had  once  been  the  tidemark  of  the  water  a 
wild  shriek  pierced  our  ears  ;  it  shot  through  the  gorge 
we  had  just  passed,  and,  peering  into  the  darkness 
through  which  it  was  sliding,  we  saw  two  men  like 
Sneekape  clutching  fiercely  at  the  slippery  walls  of  the 
ravine  as  their  canoe  swept  onwards.  It  was  the  shriek 
of  despair  and  helplessness.  Away  into  the  unknown 
it  sped,  and  the  agonised  voices  were  swallowed  up 
by  the  darkness  on  the  other  side.  The  yell  grew 
muffled  and  far-off,  and  then  suddenly  sank.  Our 
guide  laid  his  ear  to  the  azure  depths  of  the  indwelling 
ocean,  but  he  heard  no  more  than  I  did, — the  suck  and 
splash  of  the  w^aters  in  their  undercliff  passage  and  the 
boom  of  the  waves  as  the}^  struck  on  the  wall  of  rock 
without. 

We  returned  to  our  sleeping-place.  We  watched  the 
twilight  of  our  cave  die  out  and  the  glowworms  glim- 
mer and  flash  on  the  roof  ;  and  I  fell  into  a  dream  of 
starflights  in  space  and  the  intricate  dance  of  worlds 
across  the  face  of  night.  I  was  oppressed  to  agon}',  and 
awoke.  The  violet  light  was  rippling  along  the  vault 
and  paling  the  steely  glimmer  of  our  living  lamps.  I 
heard  the  rush  of  the  torrent;  but  there  was  no  breath- 
ing or  rustle  of  mortals.  I  looked  around.  My  com- 
panions were  gone. 

Here  was  I,  alone,  buried  in  this  underground  hiding- 
place  of  the  waters.  Frenzy  seized  my  mind,  and  I 
rushed  to  the  edge  of  the  torrent,  only  to  find  the  canoe 
gone  and  the  traces  of  the  feet  of  my  guide  and  his  be- 
trothed upon  the  sand,  where  they  had  embarked. 

After  a  time  I  roused  myself  from  my  despair.  I 
noted  that  the  inrushing  waters  had  a  downward  flow. 


3o6  Riallaro 

If  I  followed  them,  I  should  be  certain  to  find  human 
beings.  I  made  torches  of  the  garments  that  lay  in 
the  nooks,  and  stumbled  along  the  marvellous  cave, 
for  how  many  days  I  know  not,  guided  by  the  hiss  of 
the  tortuous  waters.  To  the  right  I  often  lost  the  wall 
that  I  crept  along.  There  were  deep  subcaves  branch- 
ing off.  At  last  I  sank  down  in  weariness  and  nausea 
of  life.  My  torches  had  given  out.  I  had  long  before 
eaten  the  last  of  my  food.  I  fell  into  a  swoon,  and  I 
seemed  to  dream.  I  saw  Sneekape  tempted  by  beauti- 
ful women  and  agonised  to  find  them  phantoms.  He 
was  whipped  and  lashed  as  he  and  his  countrymen  had 
whipped  and  lashed  the  Swoonarian  slaves.  Phantom 
after  phantom  drew  him  into  love-passages,  till  at  last 
I  saw  him  sink  in  death  upon  the  earth.  He  had  died 
of  his  own  special  passion. 

It  was  no  dream  at  all,  for  my  rescuer  appeared 
and  interpreted  to  me  the  scenes  I  had  just  witnessed. 
They  never  killed  any  of  these  cruel  tyrants  who  had 
done  them  so  many  wrongs  ;  they  only  let  them  feel 
what  they  had  been,  and  allowed  them  to  die  of  surfeit 
of  their  own  passions.  It  was  worth  the  trouble,  to 
make  them  agonise  through  the  dreary  fate  of  their 
victims  and  meet  the  natural  result  of  their  own  vices. 
To  kill  them  off  would  be  too  merciful.  The  method 
of  nature  was  more  just,  to  make  their  own  sins  punish 
them. 

They  were  about  to  apply  a  quicker  solvent  to  these 
obstructives  of  the  progress  of  man.  They  had  the 
germs  of  all  the  diseases  that  attacked  their  vices,  and 
ever}'  Swoonarian  woman  was  to  be  armed  w'ith  capsules 
of  them,  and  whenever  any  one  of  the  licentious  tyrants 
approached  her  with  unjust  or  salacious  intent  in  his 
mind,  a  capsule  was,  with  its  sharp  point,  to  effect  a 


Nookoo  z^7 

slight  scratch  on  his  body  and,  broken,  to  pour  its  con- 
tents into  the  wound.  The  Swoonarian  men  were 
escaping  by  means  of  seeming  suicide.  They  plunged 
into  what  the  Figlefians  thought  a  boiling  caldron  in 
their  burning  mountain  Nookoo.  But  there  was  a 
cool  space  in  it,  and  it  was  into  this  that  they  dived 
and  came  up  in  the  cave. 

My  rescuer  had  pleaded  with  his  fellow-conspirators 
for  my  life  and  on  oath  that  I  would  never  divulge 
their  secret  I  was  given  up  to  him.  He  blindfolded 
me  and  led  me  by  a  rough  and  devious  path,  that  zig- 
zagged and  circled  round  in  the  most  bewildering  way. 
Then  was  I  conscious  of  being  enclosed  in  something 
that  seemed  a  coffin.  I  dared  not  rebel  ;  and  in  fact  I 
fully  trusted  the  good  faith  of  my  rescuer.  I  soon  felt 
myself  hurled  as  if  through  the  air  and  my  strange  en- 
closure plunge  as  if  into  water.  For  a  few  moments  I 
had  the  sensation  of  stifling,  and  then  I  felt  a  rush  of 
briny  air  into  my  lungs  ;  there  was  buoyancy  about 
my  cell,  and  before  long  it  moved  along  the  surface  of 
water  and  struck  land.  I  heard  the  voice  of  my  guide 
again  ;  the  lid  of  my  coffin  was  unlocked,  and  I  knew 
that  I  was  standing  on  the  earth  in  the  sweet  air  of 
heaven  once  more.  Many  a  mile,  it  seemed  to  me, 
was  I  led  up  and  down,  but  at  last  we  sat,  and  food  was 
supplied  to  me.  Again  we  started  forth  on  our  rough 
journey.  I  was  led  down  to  a  sandy  beach  ;  I  knew  by 
the  sound  of  the  rippling  waves  and  by  the  soft  pliancy 
of  that  on  which  I  walked.  I  heard  men's  voices  and 
the  sound  of  paddles.  I  was  lifted  into  a  canoe,  and 
my  rescuer  whispered  in  my  ear  farewell.  I  sought 
his  hand,  and  pressed  it  in  token  of  gratitude.  When 
the  band  was  removed  from  ni}-  ej'es,  I  was  on  board 
my  own  yacht,  and  the  dawn  was  breaking  in  the  east. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE    VOYAGE   TO    BROOLYI 

OH,  the  ecstasy  of  that  first  day  !  To  hear  the 
accents  of  my  native  tongue  around  me,  to  see 
the  features  of  the  men  I  loved,  after  the  long  months 
of  sojourn  amongst  strange  peoples  !  It  seemed  years 
since  I  had  used  English,  or  spoken  soul  to  soul  with 
any  human  being.  I  dared  not  laugh  or  express  m}' 
joy  ;  I  feared  lest  my  utterance  should  be  so  ov^erdone 
that  I  would  seem  mad.  I  sat  and  reined  in  my  pas- 
sion of  reminiscence,  waiting  for  the  ebb  of  its  inundat- 
ing waters.  My  whole  being  was  flooded  with  the 
intoxication  of  the  familiar  thoughts  and  moods  of  the 
past.  I  asked  my  old  comrades  to  let  me  lie  and 
meditate  a  while,  and  as  soon  as  a  meal  was  prepared, 
they  might  call  me.  As  I  lay  I  felt  the  memories  of 
my  boyhood  and  youth  play  upon  me  like  the  sweet 
sunshine  of  my  old  home  in  summer.  I  could  have 
lived  thus  for  ever.  No  utterance  could  have  measured 
the  happiness  of  my  soul.  Then  the  last  touch  to  the 
overbalancing  of  my  emotion  was  given  by  Sandy 
Macrae,  my  steward.  As  he  moved  about  below  pre- 
paring the  table,  he  burst  out  into  "  Ye  Banks  and 
Braes  o'  Bonny  Doon."  The  tears  rolled  down  my 
cheeks,  nor  could  I  tell  whether  they  came  from  sad- 


The  Voyage  to  Broolyi  309 

ness  over  the  graves  of  the  past  or  joy  flooding  every 
pore  of  my  existence.  He  had  a  fine  voice  that  tided 
with  waves  of  emotion  ;  and  as  he  wailed  forth,  "  And 
I  sae  weary,  fu'  o'  care,"  I  broke  into  low  sobbing.  It 
was  as  if  the  spirits  of  my  loved  dead  were  speaking  to 
me  across  the  years  and  bidding  me  come  to  them,  as 
if  the  voice  of  lament  rang  out  of  the  unseen.  Every 
nerve  in  my  being  quivered  on  the  edge  of  song;  I  was 
shaken  like  a  harp  in  the  wind.  Oh,  if  only  I  could 
have  found  utterance  for  this  music  of  the  infinite  that 
was  thrilling  athwart  my  heartstrings  !  Nothing 
would  come  but  tears. 

The  song  ceased,  and  I  fell  back  into  the  dull  and 
joyless  lethargy  that  follows  great  excitement.  lyife 
was  a  grey  mist  without  vision  beyond  the  immediate 
sensation.  Annihilation — any  change  from  this  blank 
existence — would  have  been  a  delight.  A  shiver  ran 
through  my  frame,  as  if  some  enemy  had  crossed  my 
grave. 

Again  the  pathos  of  the  voice  found  full  expression 
in  "  The  Flowers  of  the  Forest,"  that  beautiful  threnody 
over  the  graveyards  of  dead  ages;  and  the  sense  of 
the  .swift  oblivion  that  overtakes  even  the  greatest  of 
the  past  came  upon  me.  This  earth  was  but  a  funeral 
orb  of  vanished  pomp  and  ambition,  a  vast  God's-acre, 
wherein  a  few  years  or  ages  mingled  the  epitaph  and 
the  graven  tombstone  with  the  forgotten  dust.  The 
whole  of  life  was  but  a  burial  procession  into  a  name- 
less past,  a  series  of  everlasting  farewells  on  the  brink 
of  an  infinite  oblivion.  That  all  this  passion  and  sad- 
ness and  weeping  should  vanish  without  effect  !  That 
the  singer  should  lie  in  the  same  unremembered  disso- 
lution as  the  sung  !  That  the  sighs  and  groans  and 
cruel  tendings  of  the  heart  that  make  up  so  much  of 


3IO  Riallaro 

the  tale  of  life  should  be,  within  a  few  decades,  as 
much  forgotten  as  to-day's  zeph3'r  or  yesterday's  storm! 
That  even  this  funeral  orb  should  itself  within  a  brief 
period  of  the  life  of  our  universe  blacken  and  shrivel 
into  death  !  The  shrilling  "  a'  wede  away"  pierced 
the  very  heart  as  it  sent  these  thoughts  through  my 
brain. 

The  ringing  of  the  breakfast  bell  threw  me  with  al- 
most volcanic  impetus  out  into  the  commonplace  world 
of  working  and  sleeping  and  feeding.  I  was  soon  re- 
plenishing the  exhausted  fires  of  energ}',  and  the  close 
of  the  meal  found  me  rid  of  sentiment  and  settled  into 
ev^eryday  feelings  and  purposes.  We  put  out  to  sea 
that  we  might  escape  an}-  hue  and  cry  that  might  arise 
from  the  disappearance  of  Sneekape  or  the  outbreak  of 
the  revolution  of  the  slaves  of  Figlefia.  It  was  not 
long  till  we  had  left  that  island  a  speck  on  the  horizon 
scarce  distinguishable  from  our  smoke  that  lounged 
cloudlike  across  our  wake,  and  we  were  deep  in  the 
history  of  our  adventures. 

The  sailing-captain  of  the  Daydream,  Alick  Burns, 
acted  as  spokesman,  with  a  court  of  appeal  in  my  old 
guide  through  Aleofane,  Blastemo,  and  my  steward, 
Sandy  Macrae.  After  seeing  me  safe  aboard  the  Tir- 
ralarian  falla,  they  set  out  for  Broolyi  ;  but  they  had 
not  reached  it,  for  they  were  driven  off  by  a  great 
storm,  and,  in  battling  against  it  so  as  to  prevent  drift- 
ing into  the  circle  of  mist,  they  had  exhausted  their 
fuel,  and  had  to  make  for  the  nearest  islands  of  the 
archipelago  the}^  could  find.  Blastemo  thought  they 
were  approaching  a  group  of  islands  that  was  inhabited 
by  the  fiercest  and  most  quarrelsome  savages  to  be 
found  within  the  rim  of  fog.  Nothing  could  tame 
them  or  reduce  their  vanity  and  belief  in  their  great- 


The  Voyage  to  Broolyi  3  ^  i 

ness  and  invincibility.  When  exiled  from  their  re- 
spective communities,  their  ancestors  had  been  of  the 
ordinary  size  and  usual  proportions  of  men.  But  in  the 
process  of  the  generations  they  had  gradually  grown 
into  pigmies  with  increasingly  venomous  dispositions. 
Their  shores  were  the  most  inhospitable  for  all  strangers, 
and  no  falla  would  approach  them  except  under  dire 
necessity.  Stories  of  their  inhumanity  and  towering 
conceit  were  told  all  over  the  archipelago.  If  they  had 
as  much  ability  to  unite  and  as  much  power  as  they 
had  venom  and  inflated  self-esteem,  they  would  domin- 
ate the  whole  earth.  Happily,  they  were  a  feeble  folk, 
still  more  enfeebled  by  their  mutual  envies  and  jeal- 
ousies and  dissensions.  Yet  they  did  all  the  harm  they 
could,  and  especially  delighted  in  getting  the  weak  or 
invalid  or  sensitive  amongst  them  to  whom  to  apply 
their  tortures. 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

MESKEETA 

BLASTEMO,  warlike  though  he  was,  was  greatly 
alarmed  at  seeing  the  wind  fall  and  the  Daydream 
drift  towards  one  of  the  lowest  of  the  group.  He  knew 
it  was  Meskeeta,  which  he  translated  the  isle  of  Book- 
butchers  ;  the  people  themselv^es  translated  it  the  isle 
of  the  Discerners  of  Good  and  Evil.  But  it  was  the 
evil,  our  friend  explained,  that  they  especially  loved 
and  indulged  in ;  and  it  was  not  difficult  for  them,  with 
their  venomous  habit  of  anatomising  the  quivering  tis- 
sues, to  find  evil  in  the  best  of  good.  The  ship  was 
drifting  so  fast  on  the  low  shore  that  he  got  Captain 
Burns  to  anchor  ;  and  soon  after  the  great  chains 
clanked  and  whizzed  she  had  stopped  in  her  course. 
The  crew  began  to  feel  their  faces  and  hands  smart  as 
if  stung  with  nettles  ;  and  before  long  they  discovered 
that  minute  darts  were  sticking  in  their  skin,  feathered 
and  pointed  and  adhesive  with  some  poisonous  acid. 
As  a  rule  a  good  vigorous  rub  brushed  off  the  micro- 
scopic barbs  and  prevented  the  venom  searching  the 
blood.  But  those  who  had  sensitive  skins  suffered 
keenly  from  the  volleys  that  came  sweeping  down  the 
light  puffs  of  wind  now  beginning  to  set  out  from  the 
shore.     The  captain  would  have  heaved  anchor  and 

312 


Meskeeta  313 

sailed,  had  he  not  found  that  their  provisions  were  run- 
ning short.  So  he  ordered  the  thinner-skinned  below, 
and  with  the  others  he  watched  the  beach  to  see  if  he 
could  find  the  dart-throwers.  Only  by  aid  of  the  ship's 
telescope  could  he  discover  them,  so  diminutive  were 
they  and  so  masked  were  their  batteries.  Blastemo 
had  not  much  hope  ;  but  they  might  try  whether  the 
islanders  had  any  stores.  Meanwhile,  to  reduce  the 
virulence  of  the  pigmies,  on  his  advice  they  lit  all 
the  lamps  they  had  and  crowded  them  together  on  the 
point  that  would  produce  most  effect  on  the  shore.  At 
once  the  vollej^s  ceased,  and  through  the  glass  could 
be  seen  the  little  beings  falling  in  the  dust.  The  effect 
was  still  more  pronounced  when  blank  cartridges  of  gun- 
powder were  fired  and  showers  of  rockets  and  squibs. 
The  creatures  grovelled  towards  the  ship,  then  bit  the 
dust,  and  scattered  it  with  their  hands  upon  their  hair 
and  bodies.  Blastemo  told  them  that  these  pigmies 
were  worshippers  of  anything  that  flashed  or  dazzled, 
but  whenever  even  the  sun  got  obscured  or  clouded 
they  began  to  shoot  at  it.  Into  this  island  had  been 
exiled  all  who  were  bitten  with  the  mania  of  criticism, 
and,  however  stalwart  their  proportions  when  cast  on 
its  shores,  their  microscopic  fault-finding  within  a  few 
generations  reduced  their  descendants  to  the  size  of 
this  puny  race  of  dart-throwers.  For  lack  of  books 
and  authors  to  dissect  and  torture,  they  resorted  to  this 
petty  internecine  warfare.  Thej^  never  did  much  harm, 
it  is  true,  except  to  one  another  and  to  oversensitive 
targets,  their  missiles  had  grown  so  minute  and  their 
vision  so  oblique  and  so  marred  by  the  habit  of  wearing 
varieties  of  spectacles.  These  spectacles  were  all  spotted 
and  cracked  and  twisted,  in  order  to  produce  blemishes 
to  be  criticised  and  attacked  in  every  object  gazed  at  ; 


SH  Riallaro 

they  had  been  originally  assumed,  it  was  said,  to  per- 
mit them  to  stare  at  the  sun  and  other  luminaries 
without  blenching,  but,  as  they  were  never  cleaned  or 
mended  or  renewed,  they  became  invaluable  in  their 
daily  business  of  fault-fiuding  ;  they  discovered  stains 
on  the  purest  white,  and  defects  in  the  most  perfect 
thing  ever  created  ;  and  that  was  a  great  comfort.  It 
was  also  a  comfort  to  their  victims  ;  for  they  could  not 
distinguish  the  vulnerable  parts  from  the  invulnerable 
or  even  see  to  shoot  straight  ;  they  were  as  good  as 
purblind.  The  worst  the  venomous  little  creatures 
could  do  was  to  send  their  poisoned  barbs  down  the 
wind  in  vollej's  and  thus  obscure  the  vision  of  their 
foes  or  of  those  who  looked  on;  they  even  thought  that 
they  thus  obscured  the  sun  at  times,  and  they  were 
sorry  for  this,  for  they  adored  everything  that  flashed 
with  brilliancy. 

"  When  we  saw  them  lie  on  their  stomachs  in  the 
dust,"  continued  Burns,  "  we  struck  out  in  our  boats 
for  the  shore,  expecting  peace  at  least.  But,  as  we  got 
out  of  range  of  our  lamps,'  the  dwarfs  leaped  up  and 
began  pouring  their  paltry  missiles  into  the  air.  We 
landed  with  some  inconvenience  but  no  real  harm  ;  for 
we  were  all  thick-skinned.  They  crowded  round  us  in 
groups,  busy  with  their  petty  bows  and  slings.  Their 
missiles  flew  like  dust.  But  they  did  more  harm  to  one 
another  than  tons,  they  missed  us  so  often,' and  we 
spread  our  handkerchiefs  over  our  faces  and  hands. 
This  last  resort  was  necessary,  for  we  noticed  that  one 
group  made  the  face  their  target,  another  the  neck,  and 
a  third  the  hands  ;  their  functions  were,  we  could  see, 
carefully  specialised.  One  feature  that  perplexed  us 
was  that  they  had  their  upper  parts  concealed  in  such 
enormous  masks  as,  if  we  had  not  seen  their  legs,  would 


Meskeeta  315 

have  made  them  seem  giants  ;  each  man's  mask  was 
large  enough  to  cover  a  whole  group  ;  and  the  masks 
in  each  group  were  all  exactly  alike  ;  but,  as  they 
shifted  from  group  to  group,  they  interchanged  masks. 
The  onl}'  thing  that  seemed  to  distinguish  one  from 
another  was  that  a  few  of  the  masks  had  names  on 
them. 

"  We  were  much  puzzled  about  all  this  till  Blastemo, 
here,  showed  us  that  it  was  a  ruse  to  hide  their  identity 
in  their  internecine  warfare  ;  no  one  could  tell  which 
of  his  enemies  had  dealt  him  any  blow  or  poisonous 
wound  ;  and  the  size  of  the  masks  was  to  deceive  as  to 
the  numbers  and  force,  when  the  foe  could  not  see  the 
legs.  The  gigantic  heads  had  huge  brows,  and  be- 
neath these  protruded  eyes  that  added  a  more  truculent 
expression  to  the  already  truculent  face.  These  eyes 
were  the  spectacles  which  were  intended  to  give  espe- 
cial protection  to  the  living  e3'es  behind  and  to  distort 
and  mar  the  objects  looked  at  ;  they  were  an  especial 
mark  for  the  missiles  of  enemies  ;  and  so  they  were 
cracked  and  scratched  in  all  directions.  Blastemo  also 
explained  to  us  the  sudden  change  of  attitude  towards 
us  after  we  had  left  the  ship  ;  it  was  the  dazzle  that 
they  adored  and  not  the  sources  of  it.  We  would  not 
have  minded  the  artillery  of  the  pigmies,  but  that, 
after  seeing  how  futile  it  was,  they  began  to  squirt 
water  as  well,  and  we  were  soon  covered  with  fetid 
mud  from  head  to  foot  ;  the  minute  missiles  mingled 
with  the  water,  and  the  poison  on  them  gave  the  dis- 
gusting smell. 

"We  sent  off  to  the  ship  for  lamps,  and  we  bore  them, 
each  of  us  one,  gleaming  on  our  heads.  We  were  at 
once  safe,  except  for  guerilla  warriors,  who  might  be 
for  the  moment  behind  any  one  of  us.     They  did  not 


3i6  Riallaro 

now  grovel  in  the  dust ;  the  light  was  not  strong  enough 
to  produce  this  effect.  They  approached  and  patted  us 
with  most  patronising  familiarit}',  minute  though  they 
were.  They  seemed  to  draw  infinite  courage  from  their 
numbers  and  the  masking  of  their  faces;  for  if  we  caught 
an)'  one  of  them  alone  and  lifted  him  in  our  hands  and 
took  off  his  head-gear,  he  shivered  with  fear  and  lay  down 
flat  on  the  palm  of  our  hands  with  imploring  gestures; 
and  when  we  let  him  down  on  the  ground  he  scampered 
off  to  the  shelter  of  some  group  as  if  for  dear  life.  We 
were  glad  to  be  rid  of  the  wretched  little  creatures  ;  for 
when  held  close  to  us  they  stank  abominabl}',  remind- 
ing us  of  certain  bed-lurking  insects  of  Christendom. 
Without  their  masks  they  seemed  to  lose  their  self-con- 
fidence and  braggart  airs,  and  yet  there  were  a  few 
who  wore  none,  and  stood  off  from  us  in  haughty  isola- 
tion that  almost  made  us  laugh,  so  incongruous  was  it 
with  their  stature.  Blastemo  tells  us  that  these  were 
the  great  men  amongst  them,  who  thought  they  had 
the  power  of  conferring  godhead  and  everlasting  fame  ; 
they  called  themselves,  in  fact,Todes,  or  the  godmakers 
of  mankind.  Sandy  Macrae  thought  of  bringing  off  one 
or  two  of  them  in  his  pocket,  so  useful  would  they  be 
to  people  without  a  religion,  and  to  title-beggars  and 
popularity-hunters  in  the  old  country.  Sandy's  waist- 
coat would  have  held  enough  to  serve  all  Europe.  But 
the  thought  of  the  proximity  of  the  dirty  little  imps  to 
his  nose  made  him  rob  Christendom  of  such  a  rein- 
forcement of  its  courts  and  centres. 

"  We  watched  them  for  a  time,  and  observed  that  all 
of  them  had  a  squint  in  their  eyes,  so  that  we  could 
never  tell  which  way  they  were  looking.  And  their 
noses  extended  right  across  their  lips  into  a  sharp  point. 
They  were,  in  fact,  a  most  treacherous  looking  crew; 


Meskeeta 


d'  / 


and  treacherous  they  were,  too,  as  any  one  of  us  soon 
found  when  his  lamp  went  out  or  when  he  turned  his 
back  on  a  group  of  them.  We  soon  discovered,  too,  how 
innumerable  were  the  dissensions  and  divisions  amongst 
them.  When  they  were  all  in  front  of  us  and  all  our 
lamps  were  shining  brightly,  group  would  turn  against 
group  ;  but  if  that  was  not  possible  the  members  of 
a  group  would  turn  and  embrace,  or  adore,  or  brush 
the  clothes  of  one  another.  Blastemo  explained  to  us 
that  mutual  flattery  was  the  only  alternative  they  knew 
for  malicious  hatred  or  envy  or  jealousy.  They  build 
their  temples  over  the  graves  of  those  whom  they  call 
great  men  and  whom  they  have  persecuted  to  death, 
and  each  worshipper  expects  a  temple  to  be  erected 
over  his  grave  when  he  dies.  So  you  can  imagine  the 
number  of  sacred  buildings  in  the  island.  No  stranger 
is  admitted  to  any  of  them  ;  but  it  is  said  that  each  of 
them  is  a  vast  mirror  within  ;  only  one  worshipper  en- 
ters at  a  time;  and  he  sees  on  all  sides  of  him  nothing 
but  glorified  editions  of  himself.  Without,  they  are  of 
a  jaundiced  colour,  broken  only  by  the  light  of  green 
lamps  that  are  ever  kept  alight,  in  order,  they  say,  to 
ward  off  the  evil  eye.  There  are  no  priests,  for  every 
devotee  is  his  own  priest;  but  each  has  a  doorkeeper 
who  is  dressed  up  to  represent  Env5^  His  chief  duty 
is  to  see  that  only  one  enters  at  a  time  and  that  he  adds 
his  quota  to  the  fire  on  the  altar.  This  consists  of  some 
book  that  he  has  criticised  and  shown  to  be  full  of 
faults.  They  keep  a  feeble  folk  in  slavery,  dwarfs  like 
themselves,  to  produce  books  on  which  to  exercise  their 
critical  powers.  These  poor  creatures  have  highly 
sensitive  skins  and  feelings,  and  they  writhe  under 
the  attacks  of  their  critics  ;  it  is  their  agony  that  gives 
the  keenest  pleasure  to  their  masters  and  makes  the 


o 


1 8  Riallaro 


sweetest  incense  in  their  offerings  to  the  gods.  The 
Meskeetans,  indeed,  would  have  lost  the  end  of  their 
existence  and  died  out  but  for  this  diversion.  Occa- 
sionally they  get  mad  over  a  book  of  real  power  ;  they 
dance  with  rage  and  afterwards  with  delight,  for  it 
piques  their  best  faculties  to  energy  ;  and  the  joy  they 
afterwards  get  out  of  its  petty  faults  is  tenfold  because 
their  rage  did  not  lead  them  to  burn  it  at  once  or  tear 
it  into  fragments.  Every  comma  or  letter  or  word 
misplaced  makes  them  inordinately  proud  of  their  acu- 
men ;  they  strut  and  crow  as  if  they  had  found  the 
source  of  original  sin.  The  overseers  of  the  slaves 
make  them  insert  mistakes  in  the  books  in  order  that 
their  discovery  may  gratify  the  venomous  little  mas- 
ters. The  lot  of  no  people  in  the  whole  archipelago 
arouses  so  much  pity  as  that  of  these  book-makers,  so 
utterly  hopeless  is  it.  They  are  kept  alive  that  their 
anguish  may  be  enjoyed  ;  they  are  carefully  watched 
lest  they  commit  suicide,  all  to  gratify  the  inhuman 
desire  of  the  little  monsters,  their  owners. 

"  This  we  knew  afterwards  from  our  friend  here," 
continued  our  captain.  "  But  we  went  up  into  their 
town  to  see  if  we  could  get  food  or  fuel.  We  saw 
their  yellow,  green-lanterned  temples,  and  came  upon 
some  of  the  poor  scholars  in  chains  bent  over  their 
books.  The  houses  were  made  of  glass  like  their 
temples,  and  it  was  somewhat  paiirful  for  our  eyes  to 
look  at  them  in  the  sun  ;  but  inside  the}'  were  all  mir- 
ror ;  every  little  man  could  contemplate  his  own  self, 
whatever  he  did  within  his  own  household  ;  outside  he 
could  see  nothing  to  adore  but  the  sun  and  its  reflec- 
tion ;  inside  he  took  the  place  of  that  luminary  and 
god.  Every  house  bore  evidence  of  having  stood 
siege  :  it  was  cracked  and  splashed  with  mud  in  almost 


Meskeeta  3^9 

every  part  ;  there  were  some  spaces  that  were  left  in- 
tact, and  on  these  I  saw  something  engraved  ;  it  was, 
Blastemo  interpreted,  the  chief  maxim  of  their  adored 
book  :  '  God  has  given  us  to  know  all  things,  and  to 
say  all  things  without  error  ;  let  the  world  worship  us, 
His  prophets  and  vicegerents  upon  earth.'  Where 
this  was  written,  the  glass  was  thin  and  transparent, 
so  that  it  could  be  read  both  without  and  within  ;  all 
the  rest  was  fortified  to  stand  a  siege  by  any  one  group. 

"  We  could  find  no  supplies.  They  had  no  food  but  a 
flour  obtained  b}-  pounding  up  the  bones  of  those  whom 
they  considered  the  great  dead,  or  a  kind  of  chalky 
paste  obtained  from  reducing  statues  of  themselves  and 
of  the  gods  whom  they  worshipped.  Their  only  drink 
was  a  black  fluid  that  tasted  like  vinegar,  and  no  fuel 
could  we  get  but  a  few  of  the  books  produced  by  the 
enslaved  people. 

"  The  oil  in  our  lamps  began  to  give  out,  and  we  had 
to  beat  a  hasty  retreat,  for  they  had  found  that  we 
did  not  bow  before  them  as  omniscient  or  divine,  or 
treat  their  sayings  and  life  with  any  great  adoration. 
They  began  to  concentrate  their  sharpest  and  most 
poisonous  darts  upon  us,  as  we  turned  to  make  off, 
and  yet  when  we  arrived  on  board  and  massed  our 
newly  lighted  lamps,  we  could  see  the  little  creatures 
down  on  their  faces  again  in  the  dust." 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

COXURIA 


T 


we  weighed  anchor,  it  fell  and  we  began  to  drift. 
When  the  morning  came,  we  saw  that  a  current  was 
rapidly  bearing  us  down  upon  another  low  island 
that  closely  resembled  in  its  outline  the  land  we  had 
left  ;  but  it  was  evidently  very  productive,  and  here 
we  seemed  certain  of  obtaining  supplies.  Blastemo 
thought  it  was  Coxuria.  If  it  were  and  if  the  pigmies 
that  inhabited  it  were  able  to  lay  aside  their  everlasting 
hostilities,  there  was  plentj-  to  get  on  the  island.  We 
cast  anchor  therefore  and  pulled  to  the  shore. 

"  It  was  yet  early,  and  on  the  beach  there  were  but 
few  pigmies,  who  were  greatly  excited  at  our  arrival. 
Each  of  the  wizened  little  atomies  laid  himself  along- 
side of  one  of  our  party  when  we  jumped  out  of  our 
boats,  and  began  to  prove  to  him  the  superiority  of 
some  dogma  he  held.  We  did  not  understand  them, 
and  listened  in  bewildered  silence.  But  the  friendly 
fervour  died  out  of  their  manner  as  soon  as  it  dawned 
on  them  that  not  a  word  of  their  eloquence  was  under- 
stood by  us.  A  shade  fell  upon  their  faces  and  turned 
them,  with  their  restless  malice  and  cruel  hate,  into 
miniature  maps  of  hell.     They  were  like  little  demons 

320 


Coxuria  321 

as  they  consulted  together.  They  chose  a  represent- 
ative, who  addressed  us  in  Aleofanian,  and  Blastemo 
interpreted.  But  the  faces  of  the  silent  Coxurians  grew 
darker  and  more  scowling  ;  suspicion  and  hatred  gave 
their  expression  to  every  feature. 

"  The  stuff  we  listened  to  was  the  most  absurd  jumble 
of  doctrines  and  arguments.  The  orator  began  by  as- 
serting as  the  first  truth  of  religion  that  the  gods  were 
between  two  and  three  feet  in  height,  and  had  shapes 
exactl}'  like  the  Coxurians  :  that  needed  no  proof,  so 
he  did  not  stop  to  prov^e  it;  the  world  was  agreed  upon 
that.  They  had  never  appeared  upon  earth  except  to 
the  saints  of  Coxuria.  With  their  saliva  they  had 
moistened  and  leavened  a  cake  that  grew  in  all  its  es- 
sential ingredients  like  the  bodies  they  had  assumed 
when  they  had  come  amongst  men.  A  little  of  this 
cake  was  enough  to  transform  everything  it  touched 
into  divine  material,  and  there  was  none  of  it  except 
in  Coxuria.  The  true  belief  was  that  everything  that  it 
touched  had  this  miraculous  power  of  transformation  ; 
only  vile  heretics  could  assert  the  opposite.  Yet  some 
still  worse  heretics  affirmed  that  only  their  high-priests 
who  had  been  touched  by  the  hands  of  high-priests  w^ho 
had  touched  the  original  saliva  had  the  true  divinising 
faculty  in  their  hands.  Another  fanatical  sect  held  the 
damning  doctrine  that  it  was  neither  the  original  saliva 
nor  the  cake  that  gave  the  power  of  miracle,  but  the 
words  that  had  come  out  of  the  mouths  of  the  gods 
when  the  saliva  sputtered  on  to  the  cake.  He  cursed 
these  heretics  with  wild  vituperation,  evidently  selected 
from  their  sacred  books,  and  threatened  them  with 
everlasting  damnation.  He  was  still  more  furious 
in  his  damnatory  eloquence  when  he  came  to  those  who 
held  that  the  essence  of  religion  lay  in  turning  the  face 


322  Riallaro 

to  the  rising  sun  in  all  ceremonies,  and  clipping  all  the 
hair  off  round  the  left  ear.  All  true  reverence  consisted 
in  modest}'  towards  the  gods,  who  lived  in  the  sun  ; 
and  their  dazzling  brilliance  there  was  intended  to 
make  the  worshippers  turn  away  their  faces  from  them. 
The  direction  in  which  they  vanished  in  the  evening 
in  their  car  of  light  was  that  towards  which  the  rever- 
ent face  ever  should  be  turned  ;  for  by  their  fading 
away  and  letting  the  curtain  of  night  be  drawn  they 
meant  to  encourage  the  worshipper  to  look  sadly  after 
them.  Then,  ever)'  man  knew  that  it  was  the  right  ear 
that  heard  most  distinctly  ;  it  was  this  that  was  meant 
b}'  the  gods  to  be  uncovered  of  its  natural  veil  in  order 
to  hear  the  divine  harmonies  of  the  universe.  It  was 
appalling  to  hear  any  human  lips  utter  such  blasphemy 
as  that  the  face  should  be  turned  to  the  east  or  that  the 
left  ear  should  be  unmuffled.  No  torture  was  too  great 
for  such  heresy. 

"  He  proceeded  with  other  damnatory  classifications 
of  Coxurian  religionists,  and  bit  by  bit  showed  how  he 
and  his  fellow- worshippers  beside  him  alone  were  to 
be  saved.  He  implored  us  to  turn  to  the  true  faith 
and  not  be  lost  for  ever.  We  managed  to  suppress 
the  smile  that  was  ever  rising  to  our  faces.  Then,  with 
a  look  round,  he  warned  us  to  be  careful  of  error  even 
within  the  true  faith.  There  were  mistakes  made  even 
by  the  best  of  men.  He  besought  us  to  avoid  the  be- 
lief that  it  was  only  over  the  tip  of  the  right  ear  that 
the  hair  was  to  be  cut,  or  that  the  body  was  not  to  be 
bent  quite  to  the  ground  in  worship  towards  the  west. 
The  whole  sense  of  hearing  was  meant  by  the  gods  to 
be  unbared  ;  and  it  was  the  main  part  of  the  body  that 
was  to  be  turned  up  to  the  rising  of  the  sun  ;  reverence 
could  be  shown  only  by  turning  the  eyes  completely 


Coxuria  323 

avva}^  from  the  dazzling  beams  of  the  gods.  He  was 
getting  more  and  more  fervid  in  his  denunciations  of 
such  errors  and  others  like  them  that  his  fellow-sect- 
arians had  fallen  into.  He  and  he  alone  was  the  pillar 
of  true  religion  upon  earth  ;  he  and  he  alone  would 
reach  the  sphere  of  the  gods  ;  alas  for  the  solitary 
grandeur  of  his  position  in  the  universe  ! 

"Suspicion  more  and  more  filled  the  faces  of  his 
pigmy  supporters.  Nor  could  we  longer  keep  down  the 
amusement  that  was  pressing  upwards  within  us.  We 
had  just  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter  when  there  crept 
down  upon  us  in  his  rear  a  cloud  of  pigmies  armed  with 
the  most  jagged  of  lances  and  arrows.  The  effect  w^as 
magical.  Our  theological  rooster  who  had  crowed  so 
lustily  and  his  band  of  our  would-be  converters  turned 
tail  and  fled,  j-et  not  without  bravado  or  menacing  gest- 
ures. The  newcomers  went  throngh  the  same  perform- 
ance as  their  predecessors,  except  that  they  insisted  on 
the  special  points  of  doctrine  that  marked  them  off 
from  all  other  .sects.  We  could  not  understand  the 
difference  between  the  two  claimants  of  our  souls. 
The  leader  of  the  second  crowd  put  the  distinction  into 
a  single  word  and  pounded  the  meaning  of  it  into  us. 
He  scowled  and  explained,  preached  and  exhorted.  Not 
a  gleam  of  intelligence  passed  over  any  of  our  faces. 
Their  inappeasable  hatred  of  the  sect  that  had  just  dis- 
appeared over  the  horizon  had  no  other  basis,  it  seemed 
to  us,  than  the  unmeaning  syllable  '  buzz.'  Their 
gods  when  they  appeared  on  earth  had,  according  to 
our  furious  orator,  proclaimed  '  fuzz  '  as  the  name  of 
the  saving  cake:  it  was  a  damning  error  in  the  fugitive 
schismatics  to  hold  that  it  was  '  buzz-fuzz.'  It  looked 
as  if  we  were  not  going  to  be  conv^erted  to  this  saving 
syllable.     The  ugly  weapons  of  conversion  were  raised 


324  Riallaro 

more  threateningly,  but  thanks  to  Blastemo  the  awk- 
wardness of  the  situation  was  got  over.  Without  con- 
sulting us,  he  rose  and  accepted  all  their  statements  as 
the  everlasting  truths  of  the  universe,  and  expressed 
for  us  the  profoundest  loathing  of  the  doctrines  that 
had  before  been  vented  upon  us.  The  scene  was 
turned  into  one  of  jubilation.  The  ugly  weapons  were 
lowered,  and  the  loathsome  little  imps  ran  forward  to 
embrace  their  converts,  as  far,  at  least,  as  the  minute- 
ness of  their  bodies  would  allow.  Never  at  one  sweep 
of  their  doctrinal  net  had  so  large  a  haul  been  made. 
It  seemed  to  be  our  size  as  much  as  our  numbers  that 
gave  them  jo}-;  every  cubic  inch  of  us  freed  from  the 
damning  error  told  in  the  ultimate  sum  of  salvation. 
We  did  not  understand  it  all  till  we  got  on  board." 

Here  Blastemo  broke  in  with  a  loud  but  somewhat 
awkward  laugh.  He  seemed  to  understand  something 
of  what  was  being  told. 

"  We  followed  them  bewildered,  as  they  led  us  inland 
with  shouts  of  joy.  But  we  had  not  gone  far  towards 
their  city  when  a  larger  troop  was  encountered,  evid- 
ently still  more  formidable  in  their  doctrinal  dislikes 
and  means  of  conversion,  for  our  conductors  slunk 
away.  Again  were  we  flooded  with  oratory,  and  again 
Blastemo  managed  the  affair  with  delicacy  and  success, 
as  it  seemed  to  us  at  the  time.  The  same  t3^.pe  of  incid- 
ent occurred  half  a  dozen  times  before  we  reached  the 
town  gates.  Our  last  troop  of  soul-captors  was  the 
largest  of  all,  but  dissension  broke  out  in  their  midst. 
It  seemed  that  several  understood  Aleofanian,  and  each 
of  these  declared  that  their  orator  misstated  their  creed 
and  gave  us  only  his  special  shade  of  it.  They  kept 
whispering  to  one  another,  till  at  last  discontent  broke 
out  into  a  general  melee.      To  make  matters  worse, 


Coxuria  325 

most  of  the  bands  that  had  been  forced  to  steal  off  and  let 
their  convertites  slip  from  their  grasp  had  evidently 
come  to  an  understanding  and  discovered  that  they  had 
all  been  deceived  by  Blastenio.  They  united  their  forces 
and  came  down  upon  us  and  our  convoy,  just  at  the 
moment  that  they  were  rent  with  dissensions  and  ready 
to  come  to  blows.  In  the  confusion  Blastemo  smuggled 
us  into  the  citj^,  and  out  again  by  another  gate,  leaving 
the  two  parties  to  fight  it  out.  When  we  had  got  near 
to  our  boats  he  saved  us  again.  We  saw  the  whole 
mob  of  pigmies  hurrying  over  the  beach.  A  few  min- 
utes were  all  we  needed  to  embark  and  escape.  He 
uttered  words  that  seemed  to  paralyse  them.  It  was  a 
curse  upon  the  most  fundamental  and  sacred  part  of 
their  creed,  a  point  on  which  they  had  agreed  to  sink 
differences.  But  it  was  only  a  momentary  paralj'sis. 
They  recovered  and  rushed  on  again.  Again  he 
hurled  amongst  them  words  that  we  did  not  under- 
stand. The  effect  was  as  strange.  They  divided  up 
into  two  hostile  groups  that  set  upon  each  other  with 
the  greatest  violence.  Before  the}'  had  seen  that  it 
was  a  ruse  of  his  and  had  checked  their  dissentient 
fnry,  we  had  got  far  enough  from  the  shore  to  be  out 
of  reach  of  their  missiles,  which  now  began  to  rain  into 
the  sea. 

' '  The  phrase  that  had  saved  us  w'as  one  on  which  the 
island  was  equally  divided  ;  one  set  accepted  it  as  the 
saving  part  of  their  creed  ;  the  other  abhorred  it  as 
the  very  poison  of  the  soul.  Blastemo  explained  to  us 
the  fundamental  difference  between  the  two  forces  of 
'  babbyclootsy  ' ;  but  none  of  us  could  grasp  it,  or,  if 
we  did,  w^e  forgot  it  at  once;  it  was  far  too  fine  for 
translation  through  two  languages.  We  abandoned 
the  effort.     So  did  we  the  other  niceties  of  creed  that 


o 


26  Riallaro 


split  the  Coxurians  up  into  units.  At  various  stages 
in  their  history  they  had  succeeded  in  attaining  unan- 
imity of  opinion  for  a  short  time  ;  one  party  through 
greater  procreative  power  or  missionary  zeal  got  the 
upper  hand  in  numbers  and  annihilated  the  minority  by 
what  they  called  "acts  of  faith,"  processes  of  slow  tor- 
ture that  ended  in  most  cases  in  death,  but  it  was  only 
for  a  short  time.  They  divided  up  again  into  two  main 
sects  ;  within,  each  was  rent  almost  into  units  b}'  fierce 
dififerences  of  opinions  ;  but  the  differences  were  sunk 
in  hatred  of  the  opposition.  This  same  historj'  re- 
peated itself  every  second  generation.  Every  decade 
or  so  the  majority  wiped  out  the  dissentient  few  by  the 
usual  process  of  faith,  and  then  split  up,  only  to  re-co- 
alesce into  two  almost  equal  bodies  for  temporary  bel- 
ligerent purposes. 

*'  They  are  very  lazy  except  with  their  tongues;  and 
so  they  are  very  prolific,  as  nature  almost  unaided  sup- 
plies them  with  plenty  of  food.  Their  numbers  are 
constantly  recruited,  too,  with  outcasts  from  the  other 
islands,  exiled  on  account  of  their  passion  for  religious 
dogmatism.  But  through  the  ages  the  Coxurians  had 
graduall}'  grown  smaller  and  smaller  in  size,  more 
wizened  in  countenance,  and  more  venomous  in  feel- 
ings. Their  perpetual  internecine  feuds  would  soon 
have  wiped  the  miserable  imps  off  the  face  of  the  earth 
but  for  two  provisions  of  nature  ;  the  arrival  of  new 
immigrants  made  them  at  times  quicksilver  into  two 
masses  in  order  to  save  the  souls  of  the  newcomers  ;  at 
other  times  the  exceptional  force  of  will  in  one  or  more 
individuals  produced  militant  organisation  that  obliter- 
ated minor  hatreds.  It  was  a  good  thing  for  the  archi- 
pelago that  there  were  ever  a  surviving  few,  amongst 
whom  might  be  placed  all  the  doctrinomaniacs  of  their 


Coxuria 


,27 


various  communities,  in  order  to  give  issue  to  the  pois- 
onous theological  blood.  These  exiles  would  never 
remain  if  the  island  were  deserted;  as  it  was  they  were 
welcomed  and  made  much  of  by  the  two  parties,  that 
their  souls  might  be  saved." 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 


O 


HACIOCRAM 

NE  group  of  islands  we  were  warned  to  avoid  was 
that  of  the  Rasolola,  or  theomaniacs.  Hither 
had  been  deported  from  the  chief  countries  all  who  al- 
lowed their  peculiar  religious  ideas  to  outrun  common- 
sense  or  the  permissible  limits  of  worship  or  theological 
belief.  A  storm,  however,  drove  us  close  to  the  small 
archipelago,  and  we  had  to  anchor  off  Haciocram,  or  the 
Isle  of  Prophets.  We  had  no  sooner  come  to  rest  than 
there  was  raised  on  a  signal-board  above  a  lofty  tower  on 
the  island  an  inscription  in  enormous  letters.  We  got 
our  guide  to  translate  it.  It  did  not  remove  our  perplex- 
ity to  learn  that  it  was  only  a  number,  1999.  What  could 
it  mean  ?  He  could  not  enlighten  us;  but  there  was  a 
provoking  smile  on  his  face.  Before  we  could  question 
him  further,  we  saw  a  canoe  put  off  from  shore.  Its 
occupant  reaching  us  bounced  on  board,  with  fiery  eyes 
standing  out  of  his  head,  and  his  long  hair  on  end  like 
a  mop.  He  was  the  inspired  messenger  of  the  inspired 
high-priest  of  the  island,  and  he  came  to  ask  us  if  we 
accepted  that  (and  he  pointed  to  the  sign-board)  as  the 
true  number  of  the  beast  ;  if  we  did  not,  we  might  just 
as  well  be  gone  at  once ;  for  we  would  not  be  allowed  to 
land.     I  wanted  to  know  what  beast  it  was  ;  I  knew  a 

328 


Haciocram  329 

good  many  beasts,  both  human  and  inhuman  ;  and  I 
should  like  to  know  which  one  it  w^as  he  meant. 
What  !  Did  I  not  know  what  the  beast  was  ?  the  man 
of  sin  ?  the  foul  creature  that  was  to  creep  forth  and 
pollute  the  world  at  its  end  ?  The  true  number  of  him 
had  but  that  day  been  revealed,  and  the  whole  world 
must  accept  it.  For  the  sake  of  peace,  I  indicated  my 
acceptance  of  it,  though  I  was  no  more  clear  as  to  its 
meaning  than  before. 

"  Blastemo  explained  how  the  Haciocrammers  had 
taken  the  sacred  books  of  the  islands  with  them  as  the 
sole  consolation  of  their  exile,  and  had  worked  out  from 
them  the  most  extraordinary  theories  of  the  constitu- 
tion, history,  and  fate  of  the  world.  But,  as  they  took, 
some  of  them  the  words,  and  others  the  letters  of  the 
words,  of  the  book  as  inspired,  whilst  one  section  ac- 
cepted its  Thribbaty  form  and  another  its  Slapyak  form 
as  the  true,  there  had  been  the  bitterest  dissension 
amongst  them.  At  one  time  the  dominant  section  con- 
verted the  others  by  great  physical  pressure  brought  to 
bear  on  the  thumb,  then  considered  the  seat  of  the  soul  ; 
at  another  it  was  the  great  toe  that  was  the  point  of 
attack  in  conversion  crusades  ;  if  the  conversion  could 
not  be  accomplished  thus,  then  w^ere  the  recalcitrants 
purified  bj'  fire  as  the  only  means  left  of  saving  their 
souls.  Sometimes  the  dissentients  pretended  to  give 
up  the  errors  of  their  way,  and  when  strong  enough 
rose  in  rebellion  and  overturned  the  dominant  set. 
This  had  occurred  again  and  again,  till  it  was  difficult  to 
tell  from  month  to  month,  or  now  even  week  to  week, 
which  sect  was  in  power.  There  were  as  many  sects 
as  there  were  symmetrical  combinations  of  numbers, 
and  they  were  all,  wlien  in  power,  equally  fierce  in 
persecution  of  the  others.    Their  experience  as  victims 


dd' 


Riallaro 


taught  them  no  lesson  of  tolerance,  but  only  filled  their 
hearts  with  a  furious  passion  for  rev'enge,  that  was 
ultimately  blended  and  confused  with  a  passion  for 
conversion. 

"  But  had  not  the  long  series  of  mutual  persecutions 
cleared  out  most  of  the  population  ?  No;  not  one  in  a 
generation  suffered  the  purification  by  fire.  Either  the 
thumb  or  the  great-toe  persuasion  was  usually  quite  suf- 
ficient. What  had  resulted  from  the  perpetual  conver- 
sions by  pressure  was  one  of  the  most  treacherous  dispos- 
itions in  the  whole  archipelago.  Cunning  had  become  an 
ingrained  instinct  as  strong  as  their  fanatici.sm  in  these 
numeromaniacs.  When  they  were  not  dragooning  and 
oppressing,  they  were  busy  protecting  themselves  from 
persecution  by  pretending  to  assume  the  colour  of  the 
persecutors.  Alternately  victim  and  fanatic  oppressor, 
the  Haciocrammer  had  become  one  of  the  most  singular 
mongrels  in  creation.  He  was  bold  as  a  lion  to-day, 
and  confident  in  his  own  inspiration  and  infallibility  ; 
to-morrow  he  was  cringing  and  supple  and  obsequious 
as  the  veriest  slave.  This  creature  who  had  just 
brought  the  order  from  the  ruling  high-priest,  whose 
eye  was  all  fire  and  fanaticism,  would,  after  the  next 
rev^olution  to-morrow  or  the  following  day,  be  ready  to 
lick  the  dust  beneath  your  feet,  whilst  his  eye  would 
be  full  of  mute  and  stupid  appeal  ;  you  would  not  be- 
lieve him  to  be  the  same  being,  his  nature  would  be  so 
thoroughly  turned  inside  out. 

' '  We  tried  to  persuade  the  ambassador  to  sell  us  pro- 
visions, but  he  was  so  eager  to  persuade  us  of  his 
infallibility  and  the  finality  of  the  new  number  of  the 
beast  that  he  could  not  listen  to  our  requests.  The 
world  had  been  waiting  for  this  number  so  long  that  it 
could  not  afford  time  for  anything  now  but  the  contem- 


Haciocram  33^ 

plation  of  it,  and  if  only  we  would  consider  the  method 
by  which  the  high-priest  had  come  at  it,  we  wonld  see 
that  the  universe  was  saved.  He  had  counted  all  the 
words  in  the  Thribbaty  version  of  the  sacred  book,  and 
all  in  the  Slapyak  version,  and  added  them  together 
for  a  divisor  ;  and  for  a  dividend  he  had  counted  all 
their  letters  and  added  them  together  and  multiplied 
the  sum  by  the  number  of  divisions  in  the  liook  ;  what 
he  got  he  divided  by  the  number  of  words,  and  thus  he 
found  the  new  number.  What  was  more  important 
was  that  he  had  prophesied  this  before  he  had  reached 
the  result  by  arithmetic. 

"  Having  got  at  the  number,  he  had  interpreted  it  in 
as  original  and  infallible  a  way.  He  had  taken  the 
number  of  strokes  needed  to  make  any  one  letter  of 
their  alphabet  as  the  numerical  rendering  of  it,  and  in 
this  manner  he  had  translated  the  whole  alphabet  into 
numbers.  He  thus  found  that  the  new  number  stood 
for  the  name  of  his  chief  antagonist;  if  taken  numeric- 
ally, it  indicated  that  this  enemy  of  his  and  of  the  sect 
he  represented  would  descend  into  Hades  at  the  end  of 
the  world,  whilst  the  high-priest  himself  and  his  sect 
would  ascend  into  heaven  ;  and  the  end  of  the  world, 
he  announced  from  other  signs  in  the  lettering  of  the 
sacred  book,  was  next  year. 

"  Blastemo  told  us  that  every  time  he  had  approached 
the  island  the  world  was  to  come  to  an  end  the  follow- 
ing week  or  month  or  jxar  ;  so,  in  order  to  test  the 
high-priest,  we  sent  off  a  message  by  his  envoy  offering 
to  buy  the  surplus  provisions  of  the  island  that  would 
not  be  needed  after  the  date  he  gave  for  the  collapse  of 
all  things.  A  negative  answer  came  back;  and,  as  the 
storm  had  moderated,  we  lifted  our  anchor  and  left." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

SPECTRALIA 

"  AS  we  sailed  off,  Blastemo  entertained  us  with 
r\  stories  of  the  groups  of  islands  that  lay  near  at 
hand,  and  especially  of  one  that  lay  away  off  to  the 
north  nearer  the  sunset  than  Coxuria  and  the  other 
islands  of  religion.  It  was  the  place  of  ghosts,  where 
the  supernatural  can  have  things  to  itself  without  the 
intrusion  of  sceptical  worldliness  and  common-sense. 
It  lies  almost  within  the  ring  of  mist  that  encircles  the 
archipelago,  and  it  is  dominated  by  twilight  when  it  is 
not  midnight.  The  inhabitants  have  an  invincible  fear 
and  hatred  of  the  sun,  and  especially  the  rising  sun  ; 
and  if  he  ever  dares  to  show  his  shameless  face 
without  a  cloud  they  raise  a  dust  that  makes  him  like 
the  eye  of  a  drunkard.  In  order  to  avoid  the  impud- 
ence of  his  glances  most  of  them  used  to  live,  and  one 
section  of  them  still  lives,  in  cellars  underground, 
sleeping  there  by  day,  and  following  their  avocations 
out-of-doors  by  night.  Mariners  in  that  region  land 
fearlessly  when  the  sun  shines,  but  avoid  its  shores 
during  times  of  cloud  and  darkness,  lest  they  should 
be  taken  for  spirits  and  bodily  enshrined  for  the  pur- 
poses of  worship.  To  be  retained  either  as  a  resident 
or  as  an  object  of  investigation  or  reverence  was  a  fate 

332 


Spectralia  ^33 

to  be  shuddered  at,  for  it  was  considered  one  of  the 
worst  wards  for  lunatic  exiles.  Hither  were  deported 
all  who  were  incurably  persuaded  that  they  and  they 
alone  had  direct  communication  with  the  other  world. 
There  was  something  uncanny  about  the  conduct  of 
everyone  who  found  his  way  thither  ;  in  his  eye  shone 
the  gleam  of  insanity,  a  reflection  from  the  baleful 
light  of  hell. 

"Another  feature  of  the  island,  as  of  all  the  theopathic 
group,  was  its  rank  sectarianism.     Almost  every  man 
was  his  own  sect.     There  was  a  rough  classification  of 
them  by  travellers  into  '  antiquated  ghost-seers '  and 
'  modern  ghost-seers  ' ;   but  none  would  acknowledge 
allegiance  to  any  classification.     They  all  believed  in 
spirits,  or  disembodied  beings,  who  visited  their  island; 
beyond  that  resemblance  ceased.     Most  of  the  older 
Spectralians,  however,  believed  only  in  ghosts  of  ancient 
lineage,  who  had  the  stately  ways  of  olden  times,  who 
seldom  condescended  to  speak  or  communicate  their 
thoughts,  and  who  looked  mutely  piteous  or  minatory 
on  their  appearance  for  a  few  seconds  and  then  vanished. 
The  more  recent  exiles,  having  had  a  tinge  of  modern 
science,   laughed  at  these  fantastic  monstrosities  of  a 
primitive  age  and  insisted  on  the  logical  outcome  of 
supernaturalism.     Every  human  being  had  a  ghost, 
and  when  death  thrust  it  out  of  its  body  it  hung  about 
its  old  locality  and  tried  to  make  itself  manifest,  now 
to  one  sense,  again  to  another,  but  most  frequently  to 
hearing.     It  had  been  a  custom  of  former  spirits  to 
address  themselves  chiefly  to  the  eye  ;  but  that  was  in 
the  silent  old  times  when  men  preferred  striking  and 
acting  to  speaking.      Now  that  the  tongue   had   be- 
come the  chief  organ  of  action,  it  would  be  obviously 
absurd  for  the  world  of  spirits  not   to   adapt   itself 


334  Riallaro 

to  the  new  waj's;  and  so  it  was  now  to  the  ear  that  they 
addressed  themselves,  and  seldom  to  the  eye.  And, 
whereas  they  had  been  ridiculously  limited  by  ghostly 
conventions  and  could  appear  only  in  solemn  guise  at 
midnight  by  tombs  and  in  abandoned  chambers  of 
castles  or  in  rooms  where  murder  had  been  done,  now 
they  were  free  to  make  themselves  heard  when  and 
where  they  pleased,  or  rather  when  and  where  their 
corporeal  clients  and  patrons  pleased.  There  had  evid- 
ently been  a  great  war  of  liberation  in  the  region  of 
ghosts,  a  sort  of  French  Revolution,  that  had  thrown 
off  the  shackles  of  old  and  absurd  convention  from 
their  limbs,  if  such  a  mode  of  speech  were  permissible. 
Now  there  was  infinite  variety  in  the  world  of  the  dis- 
embodied as  in  the  world  of  common  things.  They  all 
kept  shop,  as  it  were,  and  were  ready  to  serve  any  who 
approached  them  in  the  due  and  proper  wa3\ 

' '  There  was  in  fact  a  small  section  of  these  modernists 
who  prided  themselves  on  their  superior  modernity  and 
held  that  they  could  take  a  spirit  out  of  its  living  body 
as  easily  as  a  pea  out  of  its  pod  ;  for,  they  said,  there 
are  really  two  spirits  in  every  human  bod)',  the  detach- 
able and  the  undetachable  ;  the  former  it  is  that  expa- 
tiates, the  world  over,  in  dreams  and  holds  communion 
with  worlds  whereof  the  senses  know  nothing  ;  the 
other  is  the  workaday  spirit  that  with  observation  and 
reason  carries  out  the  practical  functions  of  daily  life. 
They  plumed  themselves  upon  having  thus  solved  all 
the  problems  of  existence,  that  have  puzzled  mankind 
so  long,  by  this  simple  device  of  two  labels  or  classifi- 
cations for  the  contents  of  the  human  body  or  vessel. 
They  were  even  proud  that  the  rest  of  the  archipelago 
counted  them  no  less  mad  than  the  other  Spectralians, 
whom  they  scorned;  it  was  the  true  sign  of  superiority 


Spectralia  335 

in  mental  power,  wisdom,  and  modernit}'  to  be  called 
mad  by  other  men. 

"  They  despise  the  ancient  ghost-seers  for  their  old- 
fashioned  ways  and  the  funny  old  castles  and  rickety 
houses  they  build  for  their  friends  and  clients  from  the 
other  world.  To  think  of  going  to  the  expense  of  put- 
ting up  tumble-down  buildings  in  order  to  woo  spirits 
into  them,  a  kind  of  ghost-trap,  is  to  them  the  most 
laughable  of  proceedings  ;  but  the  old  fellows  never 
lose  faith  in  their  creaky  ghost  eelpots,  and  go  about 
as  solemnly  as  ever  they  did  making  the  walls  of  their 
castleschinky,  the  passages  draughty,  the  rooms  full  of 
dark  corners,  and  the  halls  like  vaults  for  the  dead.  It 
is  amusing  to  see  them  loosening  the  footboards  of  the 
corridors  and  stairs  in  order  that  they  may  creak  and 
start  and  flap  as  soon  as  the  shadows  fall.  They 
always  hang  old  tapestries  and  sheets  at  odd  draughty 
corners  to  rustle  and  lift  in  the  blackness  of  the  night; 
and  they  put  a  rooster  handy  outside  of  every  cobwebby 
old  castle  they  erect  to  give  the  word  when  their  clients 
should  be  off.  For  themselves,  they  spend  most  of  their 
nights  there.  The  early  part  they  pass  in  reading  the 
most  ghostl}^  and  blood-curdling  books  they  can  find 
in  the  archipelago  and  stuff  into  the  dirty  old  libraries. 
These  are  the  religious  literature  and  litanies  of  the 
ghosts.  It  is  a  proper  rule  in  every  faith  that  the 
worshipper  should  get  his  mind  into  the  due  receptive 
and  inspired  attitude  before  attempting  to  approach  the 
shrine  ;  only  thus  can  thej'  see  and  hear  the  objects 
of  their  worship.  Hours  do  they  consume  in  reading 
the  pious  literature  of  ghosts,  and  then  every  nerve  is 
on  the  alert,  and  everj-  sense  awake  for  the  footfalls 
of  their  friends  from  the  other  world.  The  passages 
begin  to  creak,   the  tapestries  to  flop  and  rustle,  the 


33^  Riallaro 

doors,  that  tliej-  have  left  ajar  for  their  clients,  to  slam. 
The}'  know  that  the  spirits  of  the  might}'  dead  are  then 
approaching  them  ;  their  eyes  flame  out  of  their  heads; 
and  with  a  gleam  like  lightning  the  expected  apparition 
flashes  over  the  line  of  their  vision. 

' '  The  modernists  smile  at  these  preparations  and  pre- 
cautions, and  declare  that  nothing  of  these  manifest 
themselves,  but  only  the  shadow  of  the  watcher  him- 
self in  some  passing  starlit  or  moonlit  space.  They 
know  that  the  true  modern  spirit  cares  for  none  of  these 
things;  he  has  been  brought  up  in  the  midst  of  the  best 
medical  science,  and  avoids  draughty  old  buildings  as 
bad  for  colds  and  rheumatism  and  full  of  the  microbes  of 
countless  diseases;  he  has  advanced  with  the  ages,  and 
asks  for  nothing  better  than  the  simplest  modern  appli- 
ances; he  has  learned,  as  a  modern  should,  telegraphy 
and  telepathy,  and  all  he  needs  is  a  table  to  rap  on,  or 
a  planchette  or  slate  to  write  on  ;  that  is  his  whole 
outfit,  as  becomes  an  occupant  of  an  immaterial  world; 
he  has  the  electricity  in  his  own  system  to  work  the 
thing;  but  if  he  has  got  to  materialise,  he  does  like  the 
lights  turned  down  ;  for  modern  gas  and  oil  lamps  are 
very  trying  for  a  poor  old  spirit's  eyes,  that  have  been 
accustomed  to  the  dim,  ethereal  spaces.  It  is  all  right 
when  he  can  remain  unseen  and  merely  let  his  mind 
out  in  rap  language,  though  that  is  a  rather  slow  way  of 
communication  for  beings  that  move  and  act  as  quickly 
as  thought;  but  to  doff  his  old  habits  and  his  invisible 
form  makes  a  ghost  as  shy  as  for  a  human  being  to  appear 
naked  in  broad  daylight.  It  is  no  wonder  that  spirits 
insist  that  the  lights  be  down,  when  they  are  asked  to 
appear  to  the  e}'es  of  the  initiated.  As  for  the  worldly 
and  sceptical,  they  will  never  have  the  privilege  of  see- 
ing anyone  or  even  hearing  anyone  from  the  world  of 


Spectralia  337 

spirits  till  they  abandon  their  scoflfing,  faithless  wa3'S. 
Faith  is  a  prime  essential  of  all  communion  with  the 
immaterial  world.  The  gross  senses  of  the  worldling 
can  never  see  or  hear  what  his  more  refined  neighbours 
catch  from  the  spirit-sphere.  It  is  only  Spectralia  that 
ghosts  will  ever  favour  with  their  countenance.  Now 
and  again  they  appear  to  men  and  women  of  peculiar 
natures  in  other  islands  in  order  to  have  them  deported 
to  their  favourite  isle  ;  they  are  heard  of  no  more  after 
the  exile,  having  followed  their  clients.  But,  if  those 
they  address  lose  faith  in  them  and  remain  with  their 
fellow-countrymen,  the  ghosts  cease  to  appear  to  them. 
Even  the  modernists  acknowledge  that  spirits  have 
but  limited  means  of  communication  ;  they  prefer  two 
or  three  methods  and  will  have  no  others.  A  story  is 
told  over  the  archipelago  of  a  Swoonarian  inventor 
w^ho  had  noticed  this  and  had  thought  out  plans  for 
opening  a  clear  highway  into  the  spirit-world.  One 
was  to  erect  a  vacuum  tube  up  through  the  atmosphere 
of  the  earth  and  to  catch  the  ghosts  in  gossamer  nets 
at  the  bottom  of  it  as  the}'  were  sucked  down.  Another 
was  to  have  a  megaphone  with  an  enormous  mouth 
stretching  above  the  clouds  and  its  terrestrial  end  in  a 
vast  magnifying  hall  that  would  turn  the  poor  ghost 
whispers  into  clear,  intelligible  sounds.  A  third  was  to 
utilise  their  rapping  propensities;  he  proposed  to  have 
a  great  musical  instrument  with  keys  placed  in  position 
underneath  their  favourite  tables,  where  the  spirits 
loved  to  rap  out  their  answers  to  questions  ;  a  little 
training  would  soon  develop  in  them  the  power  of 
earthl}^  harmonj^  and,  as  they  struck  the  keys,  the 
vSpectralians  would  have  the  most  divine  ghost  music. 
A  modification  of  this  would  provide  a  method  for 
spirits  to  express  applause  when   they   approved   of 


33^  Riallaro 

earthly  performers  and  speakers  ;  a  series  of  fans  or 
clapboards  were  to  work  round  a  freely  moving  axle 
and  to  come  in  contact  with  the  soft,  flat  surface  as 
they  spun  round,  so  that  they  would  produce  a  sound 
like  the  clapping  of  hands  ;  as  the  spirits  rapped  on 
the  keyboard,  the  vanes  whirled  round,  and  the  effect 
of  tumultuous  applause  was  produced.  Still  another 
modification  was  intended  to  use  spirit  force  for  human 
purposes  ;  their  rapping  power  was  to  be  concentrated 
on  engines  that  would  drives  mills  and  looms  and  the 
other  machines  of  Spectralian  factories.  He  had  a 
great  windmill  too  that  was  to  be  blown  round  by  the 
breath  of  spirits  ;  and  an  automatic  spirit  reporter  that 
would  record  whatever  was  done  or  said  in  spirit-land. 
Another  line  his  inventions  took  was  to  provide  bodies 
that  would  invite  wandering  souls  into  them.  A 
third  set  of  inventions  was  intended  to  relieve  the  over- 
population of  the  Spectralian  atmosphere  ;  he  was  con- 
vinced that  the  region  was  uncomfortably  crowded, 
because  all  the  ghosts  of  the  archipelago  flocked  thither, 
and  there  were  no  sanitar}''  arrangements  for  making 
ghost  life  endurable;  so  he  proposed  by  one  of  his  new 
machines  to  take  a  census  of  the  spirits  in  and  around 
Spectralia,  and  then  to  send  his  automatic  spirit- 
emigration  Propaganda  amongst  them  in  order  to  in- 
duce large  numbers  of  them  to  seek  other  and  more 
wholesome  spheres. 

"After  long  years  of  work  on  these,  he  came  across  a 
wealthy  and  enthusiastic  Spectralian,  whom  he  con- 
vinced of  the  fortune  that  lay  in  his  machines.  The 
two  shipped  the  cargo  of  notions  and  landed  safely  in 
Spectralia.  But  before  they  could  be  put  out  on  the 
market  there  was  a  ghost  riot  one  night  ;  what  were 
the  poor  spirits  to  do  for  a  living  if  all  their  functions 


Spectralia  339 

were  to  be  appropriated  or  concentrated  by  these  vile 
inventions  ?  Half  of  them  would  be  thrown  out  of  the 
employment  they  had  been  accustomed  to,  and  how 
were  they  to  learn  all  these  new-fangled  notions  ?  It 
was  too  much  for  ghost  nature  to  bear,  and  the  ma- 
chinery was  smashed  to  pieces  in  a  single  night  ;  and 
the  spirits  formed  themselves  into  a  trades-union  for 
keeping  such  agitators  and  inventors  far  from  the  shores 
of  Spectralia  ;  it  was  said  that  the  Swoonarian  and  his 
patron  fled  before  the  indignation  of  the  mob  of  ghosts 
that  pursued  them,  and  the  last  that  was  seen  of  them 
they  were  on  their  knees  uttering  mad  cries  of  alternate 
prayer  and  threat  to  their  unseen  tormentors. 

"Another  story  told  the  adventures  of  a  missionary 
from  Aleofane,  who  was  sent  to  convert  Spectralians  to 
the  true  faith.  After  long  and  enthusiastic  labour  in 
preaching  and  praying  he  found  on  examination  that 
he  was  no  further  forward  than  when  he  landed.  The 
Spectralians  were  as  unconvinced  as  before  ;  and  on 
inquirj^  he  was  told  that  as  long  as  the  spirits  were  un- 
converted their  clients  would  adhere  to  their  old  faith. 
So  the  missionary  set  himself  to  the  work  of  convert- 
ing the  ghosts,  promising  himself  that,  this  done,  the 
whole  island  would  go  over  to  his  religion.  At  first 
they  could  not  understand  a  word  that  he  said ;  and  he 
learned  their  rap  language.  Then  the}'  refused  to  listen 
patiently  to  his  homilies  and  litanies;  he  had  no  sooner 
called  them  up  and  launched  into  his  eloquence  than 
they  had  dispersed  like  leaves  before  a  gale.  He  tried 
to  get  at  the  botom  of  this  universal  reluctance  on  their 
part  to  hear  him  out  ;  and  he  discovered  that  the}- 
were  a  good  deal  more  primitive  than  savages  or  child- 
ren ;  their  education  had  been  completely  neglected  ; 
they  could  never  tell  anybody  anything  that  was  not 


340  Riallaro 

known  to  everj'body  before  ;  they  indulged  in  the 
dreariest  platitudes  and  the  most  obvious  truisms,  and 
they  thought  that  it  was  more  than  spirit  could  bear  to 
hear  lengthy  sermons  on  the  obvious  poured  broadside 
into  them.  He  assumed  that  his  truths  were  too  high 
for  them  to  understand,  and  never  realised  that  he  was 
doing  nothing  more  than  pouring  water  into  the  ocean. 
It  was  true  that  their  education  had  been  wretch- 
edl}^  neglected  ;  the  most  elementary  truths  of  science 
were  unknown  to  them.  He  set  himself  first  to  their 
tuition  in  the  use  of  reason  before  attempting  to  con- 
vert them  again.  Alas  !  his  task  was  an  endless  one. 
As  with  savages,  after  teaching  any  simple  and  primal 
principle,  he  found  he  had  to  begin  teaching  it  to  them 
over  again.  He  did  not  weary  of  his  burden  ;  for  he 
knew  that  he  had  the  great  prize  before  him  of  con- 
verting a  whole  nation.  He  grew  a  white-haired  old 
man  before  he  could  get  them  beyond  such  elementary 
truths  as  two  and  two  are  four,  and  he  died  at  his  task, 
a  martyr  to  the  platitudinarianism  of  spirits. 

"  We  were  steaming  along  under  the  lee  of  Spectra- 
lia,  the  night  fast  lowering  upon  us,  as  Blastemo  held 
us  spellbound  by  these  stories.  A  crash  and  a  quiver 
of  the  ship  cut  short  his  narrative,  and  we  rushed  on 
deck.  The  engines  stopped,  and  peering  over  the  side 
in  the  struggling  moonlight  we  could  see  one  or  two 
dark  objects  rise  and  fall  on  the  gleaming  wake.  We 
lowered  a  boat,  and  soon  had  two  dripping  figures 
upon  the  deck.  We  anchored  and  attended  to  their 
necessities  ;  and  by  the  morning  they  had  so  far  re- 
covered as  to  be  able  to  give  an  account  of  themselves. 

"  They  were  the  superintendents  or  presidents  of  the 
Spectralian  ghost  markets;  so  Blastemo  interpreted  for 
us.     There  had  been  reported  to  them,  as  the  sun  set, 


Spectralia  341 

a  strange  appearance  on  the  horizon.  It  had  become 
too  dim  for  them  to  make  it  out  by  the  time  they  had 
reached  the  beach  ;  but  as  its  mass  of  lights  grew  in 
size  and  brilliancy  and  a  singular  throb  seemed  to  come 
through  the  air  from  it,  they  could  form  no  other  con- 
clusion than  that  it  was  an  influx  of  emigrants  from 
the  more  distant  regions  of  spirits.  As  it  approached, 
the}'  could  see  it  move  on  the  face  of  the  waters,  and 
they  knew  that  it  was  a  ghost  ship  ;  for  they  could 
perceive  dark  flights  of  spirits  gleam  in  its  lights  and 
hurry  it  on  as  they  spun  through  the  night  behind  it, 
and  they  could  hear  the  multitudinous  beat  of  their 
wings  in  the  air.  None  but  the}'  were  officially  author- 
ised to  welcome  ghostly  immigrants  into  the  island  ;  it 
was  their  duty  to  meet  the  spectral  fleet  before  it  touched 
the  land,  and  they  rushed  for  fallas,  as  they  seemed  to 
see  it  about  to  pass  their  island.  From  a  promontory 
that  would  most  easily  intercept  it  they  swung  their 
paddles  towards  it  ;  and  their  hearts  were  gladdened  as 
they  found  themselves  right  across  the  track  it  was 
making.  The  next  they  knew  was  that  they  were 
floundering  in  the  water  and  it  had  passed  them. 
They  shouted  ;  but,  faint  as  they  were,  they  thought 
that  their-  cries  would  make  little  impression.  The 
elfin  ship  stopped,  however  ;  the  throb  of  the  winged 
host  ceased  ;  and  they  w^ere  hoisted  by  the  strange 
spirits  on  board. 

"  We  asked  them  wdiat  they  wanted  to  do  with  the 
new  arrival  of  ghosts  when  they  got  them.  The  an- 
swer came;  they  would  dispose  of  them  in  the  market 
of  souls.  Each  division  of  the  people,  the  antiques 
and  the  moderns,  had  a  market  of  its  own,  and  that 
was  why  the  two  officials  rushed,  each  to  his  own 
boat,  to  secure   the  cargo  of  ghosts,  and   why  each 


342  Riallaro 

ventured  into  such  danger  to  secure  his  prize.  They 
did  not  know  for  certain  whether  the  new  arrivals  were 
spirits  of  the  olden  time  or  modern  spirits  ;  but  each 
had  good  reason  to  think  that  they  were  ghosts  of  his 
own  special  affinity.  The  man  of  the  dead-soul  market 
was  pretty  sure  that  the  cargo  was  for  him  ;  for  none 
but  ancient  spirits  would  arrive  at  midnight  with  such 
appalling  sounds,  in  such  sable  robes,  and  with  such 
flash  of  lightnings.  The  president  of  the  living-soul 
market  was  as  sure  that  they  were  for  him  ;  for  only 
modern  ghosts  could  arrive  in  such  novel  circumstances, 
and  in  all  the  panoply  of  modern  science.  It  was  with 
difficulty  that  we  could  keep  the  two  from  blows  ; 
they  wrangled  furiously,  and  hurled  insult  and  vitu- 
peration at  each  other  with  manifest  effect.  At  last 
we  had  to  get  them  into  separate  compartments  that 
they  might  not  do  each  other  bodily  harm. 

"  Alone  with  us  each  calmed  down  into  compara- 
tive tranquillity,  and  we  were  able  to  get  a  fair  and 
rational  account  of  the  two  markets  out  of  the  chaos  of 
their  mutual  misrepresentation.  After  collating  notes 
of  the  scene  with  each  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  two  markets  were  at  opposite  ends  of  the  island, 
and  that  they  belonged  to  the  two  great  sects  of  the 
people,  the  antiques  and  the  modernists.  At  stated 
times  there  were  great  ghost  fairs  to  which  the  inhabit- 
ants crowded  that  they  might  be  able  to  exchange 
familiars  or  traffic  the  spirit  that  had  become  too  com- 
monplace to  them  for  one  that  might  give  them  more 
exquisite  shocks  of  supernatural  surprise  and  alarm. 

"The  goblin-shop,  as  the  modernist  called  the  market 
of  dead  souls,  was  evidently  the  place  where  ghosts  of 
the  olden  tj^'pe  were  bought  and  sold.  It  was  situated, 
like  the  catacombs,  underground,  and  above  it  lay  old 


Spectralia  343 

graveyards,  ancient  ruins,  castles,  chapels,  and  shrines 
where  the  goods  traded  in  might  squeak  and  gibber 
and  disport  themselves  for  the  edification  of  the  pur- 
chasing public;  these  dilapidated  old  cages  were  a  kind 
of  ghost  menagerie,  or,  as  the  modernist  sneered,  the 
goblin  kennels  ;  in  them  the  spirits  were  penned  dur- 
ing the  ghost  fairs,  and  the  intending  purchasers  wan- 
dered round  and  listened  to  the  whistling,  moaning 
winds  through  the  crevices  and  tried  to  get  the  sensa- 
tion of  being  startled  by  the  ghost  rustle  and  speech  or 
by  the  apparitions  that  came  and  went  within  the  dark 
pens.  The  traffickers  went  in  twos  and  threes  around  ; 
for  they  dared  not  trust  themselves  alone  in  the  pres- 
ence of  these  uneasy  supernatural  beings.  Every  one 
of  these  strange  creatures  had  either  committed  murder 
or  suicide  or  been  present  at  such  a  deed  ;  nor  could  he 
ever  find  rest  night  or  day.  It  was  only  in  the  deepest 
darkness  that  he  was  able  to  make  himself  manifest  to 
his  clients  ;  as  soon  as  the  first  streak  of  dawn  touched 
the  horizon  he  vanished  like  a  dream,  and  not  even  the 
faintest  smell  of  sulphur  remained  during  the  day  where 
he  had  paced  by  night. 

"  The  antiquist  expressed  the  greatest  scorn  of  the 
new-fangled  rubbish  traded  off  on  poor  humanity  in  the 
demon  pigsty,  as  he  usually  called  the  market  of  living 
souls.  But  the  modernist  waxed  eloquent  on  the  mira- 
cles wrought  by  the  spirits  bought  in  his  institution. 
His  goods  were  not  the  frequenters  of  tombs  or  mouldy 
fragments  of  buildings  ;  they  were  willing  to  talk  to 
their  clients  by  the  light  of  day  and  in  the  most  com- 
fortable surroundings  ;  they  were  human  and  humane 
in  every  respect  ;  they  liked  the  society  of  living  men 
and  women,  especially  if  these  were  connnonplace  and 
preferred  information  on  topics  that  had  no  mystery 


344  Riallaro 

about  them  ;  they  delighted  in  communications  on  the 
obvious,  and  would  rather  talk  to  clients  who  wanted 
to  hear  of  what  they  knew  already  ;  they  did  not  care 
for  tombs  and  ghostly  surroundings  ;  though,  if  people 
insisted  on  getting  a  sight  of  them,  they  preferred  a 
dim  light  ;  they  were  shy  ;  for  they  were  unable  to 
procure  in  spirit-land  the  phantasms  of  the  garments 
that  they  had  worn  upon  earth  to  clothe  their  naked- 
ness. Still  better,  they  sold  in  their  market  many  a 
phantasm  of  the  living  which  could  tell  its  clients  their 
own  thoughts,  and  communicate  facts  that  they  were 
certain  to  find  out  by  common  observation  within  a 
few  minutes  or  hours.  They  sold  dream-stuff  that 
would  supply  the  sleeping  client  with  warnings  as 
to  the  future  so  that  when  the  future  arrived  he 
would  recognise  it.  In  their  market  they  had  prac- 
titioners who  could  draw  souls  like  teeth,  and,  after 
polishing  them  clean  of  diseases,  put  them  back 
again.  They  had  others,  each  of  whom  could  send  his 
detachable  soul  down  the  throat  of  a  patient  like  a 
chimney-sweep,  and,  after  cleaning  the  system,  draw 
it  back  again.  There  was  not  a  disease  in  man  but 
had  its  origin  in  the  imagination  or  detachable  soul  ; 
and  what  was  the  use  of  medicine  or  surgery,  when  all 
a  man  had  to  do  in  order  to  be  cured  was  to  get  this  free 
soul  taken  out  of  him  and  sent  to  the  practitioners  in 
the  market  or  to  borrow  the  free  soul  of  a  practitioner  for 
a  few  hours  or  days  as  the  case  might  need  ?  He  could 
go  on  for  years,  if  we  liked,  telling  us  the  miracles  and 
wonders  done  by  their  spirit-therapeutics  in  their 
market  of  living  souls.  No  less  marvellous  was  the 
consolation  ajGforded  to  the  bereaved  when  they  were 
able  to  come  and  converse  with  the  souls  of  the  de- 
parted.    For  a  small  fee  they  could  call  up  any  spirit 


Spectralia  345 

they  pleased,  and  get  it  to  write  on  slates  or  giv^e  in 
rap  language  answers  to  an}^  questions  they  might  ask, 
provided  the  questions  did  not  touch  on  its  actual  state 
or  destiny  and  related  to  facts  well  known  to  all  pre- 
sent. The  spirits  they  dealt  in  would  give  no  satisfac- 
tion to  the  profanely  curious  or  impertinent. 

"  We  suggested  that  most  of  these  phenomena  could 
be  explained  by  natural  causes  ;  and  in  each  case  the 
Spectralian  broke  into  rage  at  the  suggestion,  and 
when  he  had  calmed  down  told  us  of  the  fate  of  a  mis- 
sionary from  Figlefia,  who  had  come  to  convert  them 
to  naturalism.  Thej'  found  that  he  addressed  himself 
especially  to  the  women,  and  most  of  all  to  the  good- 
looking  women  ;  but  when  he  began  to  smile  at 
their  creed  and  covertly  sneer  at  it  and  attack  it  the 
women  waited  for  a  dark  night  and,  aided  by  the  spirits 
of  their  dead  ancestors,  they  spoiled  his  smirking  beauty 
for  him  and  gave  him  such  a  scare  that  in  his  madness 
and  terror  he  ran  into  the  waves  and  drowned  himself. 
Each  of  them  pointed  out  to  us  a  rocky  islet  off  the 
coast,  and  told  us  the  story  of  it,  evidently  as  a  warn- 
ing to  us  against  our  unseemly  unbelief.  It  was  called 
Astralia,  and  contained  a  miserable  sect  that  had  at- 
tempted to  explain  all  the  phenomena  of  their  markets 
by  the  swarming-ofif  of  astral  bodies  like  invisible 
hoops  from  them.  They  also  professed  to  have  found  a 
new  means  of  consulting  the  souls  of  distant  wise  men  ; 
they  could  write  their  questions  on  any  slip  of  common 
paper  and  put  it  in  a  cupboard,  and  down  from  the 
ceiling  would  flutter  the  answer,  which  was  so  unintel- 
ligibly wise  as  to  puzzle  men  for  years.  These  poor 
creatures  were  at  once  exiled  and  were  dying  of  starv- 
ation; for,  though  they  were  eager  for  material  food, 
they   professed   to  subsist    on    nothing  but  spiritual 


346  Riallaro 

sustenance,  and  were  wasting   away  in  this  pretended 
astral-exhalation  process. 

"  After  the  two  rivals  had  been  put  on  shore  and  we 
were  steaming  off  on  our  course,  two  packets  were 
found  in  the  bunks  they  had  occupied.  Moist  and 
limp,  the}-  were  dried  ;  and  when  opened  they  were 
found  to  contain  placards  and  advertisements  of  the 
goods  to  be  traded  off  in  their  respective  markets  at 
the  next  great  ghost-fair.  Blastemo  translated  a  few 
for  us,  both  from  the  dead-soul  packet  and  from  the 
live-soul  packet.  '  For  sale,  the  ghost  of  a  knight 
walled  up  in  the  bastion  of  an  old  castle  four  hundred 
3'ears  ago  ;  warranted  to  walk  in  armour  every  stormy 
night  that  has  not  too  much  moon,  and  to  produce  the 
most  appalling  clank  as  he  moves  along  the  corridors 
or  through  the  locked  doors.'  '  For  immediate  sale 
on  the  lowest  terms,  a  genuine  old-fashioned  spirit, 
that  cannot  bear  the  crowing  of  a  cock  or  the  least 
streak  of  light  on  the  horizon  ;  supposed  to  be  the  per- 
petrator of  a  mysterious  murder  that  took  place  some 
centuries  ago;  the  sound  of  gnashing  teeth  and  of  the 
drawing  of  swords  is  distinctl}-  heard  as  he  paces 
along,  and  the  echo  of  a  loud  sigh  as  he  vanishes. 
.  .  .  The  owner  is  clearing  out  of  his  present  pre- 
mises, because  his  ph3'sicians  have  recommended  him  a 
more  bracing  alpine  climate  that  is  quite  unsuited  to 
his  family  ghost.'  '  To  be  sold  bj^  auction  without 
reserve,  one  of  the  finest  collections  of  antique  spirits 
ever  made  in  this  island  ;  they  belong  to  a  splendid 
ruin  in  one  ofthe  most  picturesque  and  dismal  localities 
of  the  country  ;  every  one  of  them  has  either  perpe- 
trated a  murder  or  been  the  victim  of  cruel  assassin- 
ation ;  the  rooms  to  which  they  are  confined  have  the 
marks  of  bloody  footsteps  all  over  them,  and,  where 


Spcctralia  347 

these  are  dim,  tliey  can  be  easil}'  renewed  at  small  ex- 
pense; one  of  them  is  headless  and  carries  in  his  arms 
something  that  has  been  identified  by  the  best  experts 
as  a  head  ;  another  bears  the  form  of  a  young  girl,  all 
covered  with  blood,  the  supposed  victim,  and  vanishes 
with  a  heart-breaking  sigh.  The  late  owner  died  child- 
less, and  has  joined  his  own  collection  of  midnight 
walkers.  The  heirs  live  in  a  distant  part  of  the  island 
in  a  castle  already  well  provided  with  spirits,  and  are 
willing  to  treat  with  intending  purchasers  on  easy  terms 
extending  over  a  number  of  years.  Cards  of  midnight 
inspection  to  be  obtained  from  the  auctioneer  in  the 
market.'  '  Wanted,  for  a  dilapidated  mansion  newly 
built,  a  ghost  of  harmless  propensities  but  awe-striking 
habits.  He  must  be  at  least  three  centuries  old,  and 
have  all  the  favourite  traits  of  blood-curdling  appar- 
itions. No  upstarts  of  recent  introduction  need 
apply.' 

"  The  live-soul-marl:et  advertisements  were  as  defin- 
ite in  their  terms  ;  the  few  that  Blastemo  translated 
were  these  :  '  For  sale,  the  spirit  of  a  wise  man  just 
deceased,  accustomed  to  daylight  seances,  and  highly 
trained  in  rap  language  and  slate-writing.  He  would 
be  a  valuable  adjunct  to  a  household  that  has  no 
library,  or  one  that  from  want  of  education  or  eye- 
power  is  unable  to  consult  a  librar}-.  His  knowledge 
is  encyclopedic,  although  his  powers  of  observation  are 
limited.  The  daily  intercourse  with  his  spirit  would 
be  an  education  in  itself.  His  children  and  heirs  have 
no  further  need  of  his  instructions.'  '  Offered  for  sale, 
the  spirit  of  a  successful  thought-therapeutist,  who 
when  alive  could  cure  any  disease  without  the  inter- 
vention of  any  material  medium  or  medicine  or  even 
the  proximity  of  the  patient.     He  had  simply  to  think 


34^  Riallaro 

the  disease  away,  and  it  was  gone.  His  spirit,  now 
being  free  of  all  bodil}^  trammels,  is  even  more  potent 
than  before.  In  fact,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the 
possessor  of  it  will  secure  immunity  from  all  sickness, 
if  not  from  death  itself  It  would  be  a  perfect  mine 
of  wealth  for  a  medical  practitioner.  Terms  easy,' 
*  Wanted,  to  hire  out  for  short  periods,  the  detachable 
spirit  of  a  great  sage  who  lives  in  a  distant  part  of  the 
world  ;  well  accustomed  to  sending  occult  answers  to 
occult  messages,  and  to  all  the  recognised  methods  of 
occult  communication  and  intercourse;  would  be  espec- 
ially suited  for  the  entertainment  and  instruction  of 
select  companies  in  the  evening;  terms  on  application; 
a  reduction  for  a  series  of  parties  or  entertainments.' 
'  To  sell  by  auction  at  the  great  fair,  a  famous  troupe 
of  table-tipping  spirits,  the  finest  collection  ever  offered 
to  the  community.  Have  been  employed  in  drawing- 
room  entertainments.  Might  be  utilised  in  large 
hotels  or  mansions  in  removing  large  tables  from  room 
to  room,  or  in  large  factories  instead  of  elevators.' 
'  Wanted,  immediately,  for  a  bed-rid  invalid,  a  spirit- 
companion,  who  can  enter  into  all  his  tastes  and 
humour  all  his  fancies,  converse  with  him  without 
irritability  or  caprice,  and  materialise  in  the  cold  hours 
of  the  night  and  dematerialise  when  the  patient  is 
too  hot.  A  high  salary  for  a  thoroughly  competent 
spirit.'  '  Wanted,  by  a  genius,  a  spirit-amanuensis, 
who  could  inspire  his  hand  when  it  lags  on  the  paper, 
and  fire  his  imagination  at  all  times.  One  accustomed 
to  dream  suggestion  preferred.  No  eccentrics  need 
apply.'  '  To  be  auctioned  without  reser^'e,  the  finest 
collection  of  detachable  spirits  that  this  island  has  ever 
seen.  For  Spectralians  who  wish  to  .study  human 
nature  in  all  its  variety  this  affords  a  grand  opportunity 


Spectralia  349 

of  acquiring  specimens  of  every  kind  and  type  of  spirit. 
A  guarantee  given  with  every  individual  sold  that  he 
will  stand  by  the  purchaser  for  any  fixed  period  agreed 
on  and  allow  him  to  look  microscopically  into  his  inner 
mechanism.'  '  Wanted,  for  a  small  and  unhealthy 
country  village,  a  thought-therapeutic,  who  could,  if 
he  wished,  reside  at  a  distance  and  project  his  spirit 
whenever  a  patient  needed  his  power.  One  who  has 
had  much  practice  in  hysterics  and  hypochondria,  the 
prevailing  diseases  of  the  village,  preferred.' 

"  Whether  it  was  from  inadvertence  or  design  that 
our  Spectralians  left  their  packets  we  were  unable  to 
discover.  We  counted  them  of  so  little  value  that  we 
never  thought  of  putting  ourselves  to  any  trouble  to 
send  them  after  their  owners.  Besides,  we  inclined  to 
the  belief  that  they  had  been  abandoned  on  board  de- 
liberately and  for  missionary  purposes.  The  twinkle 
in  Blastemo's  eye  as  he  read  them  seemed  to  us  to 
imply  that  this  was  not  the  first  time  he  had  had  the  ex- 
perience; that,  in  fact,  it  was  a  polic}' of  the  Spectralians 
to  litter  the  archipelago  with  their  placards  and  advert- 
isements. At  any  rate,  we  took  no  trouble  to  return 
them;  they  were,  on  the  contrary,  used  for  menial  pur- 
poses that  did  not  fulfil  their  high  mission." 


CHAPTER   XXXV 


THE   VOYAGE   CONTINUED 


A 


called  Fanattia,  he  would  not  hear  of  our  visit- 
ing; for  there  were  gathered  all  the  mad  quixotistsof  the 
archipelago  ;  any  who  thought  that  some  special  kind 
of  food,  or  drink,  or  clothing,  or  gesture,  or  ceremony, 
or  manner  was  ruinous  to  both  body  and  soul,  and  sac- 
rificed all  the  other  interests  of  life  to  its  destruction  or 
abolition,  were  landed  here  and  allowed  to  fight  it  out 
like  scorpions  in  a  bottle.  God  pity  any  poor  ship- 
wrecked stranger  who  fell  into  their  hands  !  it  was  sel- 
dom that  he  was  not  torn  limb  from  limb  bj-  rival 
charlatans  or  the  parties  of  conflicting  shibboleths. 
They  were  all  threatened  with  famine  ;  for  what  one 
grew  or  manufactured  from  the  fruits  of  the  earth 
another  detested  as  bad  for  the  human  system  and  did 
his  best  to  destroy  ;  one  thought  tubers  poisonous  and 
fruits  good  ;  another  held  the  reverse  opinion  ;  and  the 
violence  of  their  enthusiasm  would  not  let  either  rest 
till  he  had  destroyed  his  neighbour's  crops,  all  for  the 
good  of  that  neighbour's  soul  ;  one  thought  a  solid 
food,  made  out  of  any  products  of  the  earth,  destroyed 
the  sense  of  duty  ;  another  thought  that  liquid  food 
made  from  them  dulled  the  senses,  the  portals  to  the 

350 


The  Voyage  Continued  351 

soul  ;  impelled  bj^  his  zeal  neither  could  stop  short  of 
destroying  all  that  his  neighbour  manufactured.  The 
result  was  that  there  was  never  any  food,  either  liquid 
or  solid,  to  be  found,  and  the  miserable  creatures  had 
to  subsist  on  anything  the}'  could  pick  up  on  the  beach. 
It  was  the  same  with  garments  and  gestures,  with  atti- 
tudes and  manners  and  tones  of  voice.  There  was  not 
anything  that  could  not  find  a  hostile  critic,  and  the 
critic  had  at  once  to  show  his  hostility  in  the  most  vio- 
lent crusade,  that  could  not  cease  till  the  thing  or  the 
believer  in  it  was  driven  out  of  existence. 

"  There  were  other  groups  of  islands  near,  on  which 
Blastemo  advised  us  not  to  land  ;  one  was  a  group  oc- 
cupied by  exiles  who  cultivated  religion  apart  from 
morality  ;  another  was  occupied  by  exiles  who  devoted 
themselves  to  imagination  and  let  conscience  decay  ; 
the  inhabitants  of  a  third  sank  all  human  methods  and 
thoughts  in  the  interests  of  political  party.  This 
was  the  worst  class  of  monomaniacs  in  the  whole 
archipelago.  They  were  in  the  most  degraded  con- 
dition, and  were  constantl}^  burning  or  torturing  out 
some  wretched  minority,  just  as  the  Meskeetans  and 
Coxurians  did.  They  paid  little  attention  to  the 
amenities  of  life.  As  long  as  they  still  had  islets 
to  which  they  could  exile  their  dissenters  they  had 
not  been  so  venomous  as  these  two  peoples.  But  re- 
centlj'  they  had  become  unbearably  offensive  in  their 
manners  and  their  attacks  on  strangers,  and  everyone 
now  avoided  their  shores.  The  God-wise,  as  the  relig- 
ious monomaniacs  called  themselves,  had  grown  licen- 
tious and  even  obscene  ;  they  had  developed  the  most 
disgusting  and  beastlj'  habits  from  the  idea  that  they 
knew  the  will  of  God  and  could  dispense  with  the  com- 
mon rules  of  morality  and  decency,  those  '  badges  of 


35 : 


Riallaro 


mere  earth-born  natures.'  The  worshippers  of  beauty 
had  grown  callous  in  their  cruelty.  Squeamishly  sens- 
itive about  their  own  feelings^  they  condemned  any 
dissentient  amongst  them,  or  any  alien  whom  they 
found,  to  the  most  excruciating  tortures  ;  every  man 
who  had  anything  abnormal  in  his  face  or  features  or 
gait  was  given  to  the  death-men.  The  federators  of 
human  it}'  were  the  most  dishonest  and  corrupt  and 
quarrelsome  of  all;  they  held  that  other  considerations, 
moral,  political,  religious,  were  as  nothing  compared 
with  party  organisation;  and  they  had  ultimately  come 
to  feel  all  bonds  dissolved  but  those  of  party,  and  to 
hound  down  everyone  who  advocated  anything,  how- 
ever noble  or  great  or  even  decent,  that  was  outside  of 
the  party  programme  ;  no  wonder  they  had  grown  so 
offensive  in  their  personal  habits,  so  cruel  in  their  re- 
lations to  the  rest  of  mankind.  It  was  useless  asking 
any  of  these  peoples  for  .supplies,  they  were  so  im- 
provident ;  nay,  it  was  dangerous  approaching  their 
shores  with  such  a  property  as  the  Daydream. 

"  There  were  other  groups  of  islands  that  were  too 
small  and  barren  or  too  much  out  of  our  course  to  think 
of  visiting.  There  was  the  art-religion  group  with 
Calocosm  or  the  isle  of  art-popes  in  the  centre  of  it  ; 
their  inhabitants  were  mo.st  intolerant  and  quarrel- 
some. Not  far  from  it  is  the  isle  of  Cryptia,  where  the 
dwellers  spend  most  of  their  time  in  mystic  ceremonies 
and  parades,  dressed  in  the  most  fantastic  garments, 
and  carrying  the  most  ludicrous  paraphernalia  of  office; 
their  ceremonies  are  performed  in  dark  caves  dimly 
lit,  and,  in  order  to  impress  the  imagination,  mimic  in 
absurd  fashion  the  wild  feasts  and  rites  of  savages  ; 
they  believe  in  a  religion  without  a  god,  without  the 
religious  or  moral  spirit;  a  religion. that  is  nothing  but 


The  Voyage  Continued  353 

ceremonial.  In  an  opposite  direction  lies  a  group  that 
is  given  up  to  mediconianiacs  ;  its  central  island,  called 
Fidikyoor,  has  all  the  ailments  of  humanity  in  full 
force  ;  and  j^et  the  islanders  can,  if  they  will,  cure  any 
disease  they  like  b}'  the  mere  act  of  belief.  The  other 
islands  in  the  group  have  each  its  system  of  therapeu- 
tics :  one  cures  by  blowing  in  the  face,  another  by 
spitting  in  the  face,  a  third  by  striking  on  the  cheek. 

"  Nearer  to  Coxuria  lay  two  groups  that  were  the 
natural  complements  of  each  other.  One  group  had  as 
its  centre  Theophane,  and  the  inhabitants  all  believed 
that  the}'  had  but  to  elect  one  of  their  number  by  bal- 
lot in  seciet  meeting  in  order  to  make  him  a  god,  who 
whilst  he  lived  could  converse  with  the  gods  and  get 
from  them  the  absolute  truth  of  all  existence.  The 
president  of  each  island  might  be  the  most  consummate 
liar  in  the  aichipelago,  and  yet  all  he  said  whilst  pre- 
sident was  taken  as  divine  revelation  of  the  truth  ;  and 
everj'one  who  believed  or  professed  to  believe  in  any- 
thing that  disagreed  with  it  was  promptly  brought  to 
his  bearings  bj^  the  most  eflfective  and  summary  pun- 
ishments. So  there  was  perfect  unanimity  of  belief  in 
these  communities.  But  the  numbers  in  each  isle  had 
become  so  small  that  every  man  expected  some  day  to 
have  his  most  manifest  fiction  accepted  during  his 
period  of  office  as  the  most  undeniable  truth.  Over 
against  them  lay  another  group  that  had  as  its  centre 
Antidea  ;  its  islands  agreed  in  vehemently  denj'ing  the 
existence  of  all  gods  ;  but  each  had  its  own  particu- 
larly unpleasant  way  of  affirming  its  creed.  The  peo- 
ple were  virulently  intolerant,  hating  most  of  mankind 
because  most  believed  in  some  deity  or  other.  They 
asserted  so  firmly  and  confidently  that  they  had  found 
absolute   truth   on  this   matter   of  gods   that,  had   a 


354  Riallaro 

theopath  landed  on  their  shores,  they  would  have 
burned  him  in  order  to  save  his  soul  from  the  grovel- 
ling superstition. 

' '  Between  the  medicomaniacs  and  the  theopaths  laj'-  a 
mediating  group  called  Dirtethos  ;  here  lived  the  exiles 
that  counted  sin  and  crime  as  a  mere  aberration  of  in- 
tellect or  of  digestion  ;  their  religion  was  a  matter  of 
food  and  medicine.  If  a  man  stole  from  his  neighbour, 
then  all  the  rest  of  his  neighbours  came  to  sympathise 
with  him  in  his  misfortune  whilst  the  victim  was  left  in 
deserved  neglect.  If  anyone  got  into  the  habit  of  tell- 
ing lies,  then,  poor  fellow,  he  had  to  go  to  bed  and  be 
nursed ;  his  stomach  was  out  of  order.  If  anyone  mur- 
dered his  mother  or  his  wife  or  his  friend,  he  had  to 
go  to  a  hospital  and  get  soothed,  and  his  relations  and 
acquaintances  rushed  to  console  him  in  his  temporary 
sickness  ;  it  was  sad  indeed  to  have  such  an  overflow^ 
of  blood  to  the  head.  If  one  should  outrage  all  recog- 
nised traditions  and  rules  of  morality  and  legality,  then 
his  friends  spent  their  days  and  nights  with  him  reas- 
oning him  out  of  his  sad  mistake  ;  he  was  the  hero  of 
the  hour  ;  his  victims  were  forgotten.  An  incorrigible 
criminal  was  sent  to  the  university,  where,  by  sympathy 
and  lectures,  he  had  his  chance  of  recovering  his  tone. 
There  he  held  receptions,  to  which  the  most  important 
people  of  the  island  were  honoured  in  being-  invited  ; 
here  he  discoursed  with  them  on  the  methods  of  his 
crimes  and  lapses,  and  spoke  of  his  past  as  if  it  were  a 
piece  of  ancient  history  of  a  foreign  nation  ;  everybody 
conversed  with  him  on  it  with  the  impartiality  of  philo- 
sophers or  the  whispered  consolations  of  bosom  friends  ; 
his  teachers  mourned  with  him  over  the  hard  lot  of 
humanity  which  condemned  poor  mortals  like  him 
to  such   mental   aberrations.     This  group   Blastemo 


The  Voyage  Continued  355 

considered  the  worst  of  the  lunatic  settlements  of  the 
archipelago  ;  no  locality  was  so  dangerous  for  the 
stranger  or  the  shipwrecked  mariner. 

"  By  his  advice  we  steered  for  the  island  of  Grabaw- 
lia,  where  those  who  had  a  mania  for  finance  dwelt. 
When  we  landed,  the  people  did  not  crowd  around  us 
as  they  had  done  in  the  other  islands  ;  they  hovered 
off  like  vultures  waiting  a  solitary  swoop.  But  we 
soon  discovered,  as  one  after  another  approached  us 
and  explained  his  benevolent  intentions,  that  we  were 
about  to  be  exploited.  Pilot-financiers  always  preceded 
the  great  man  who  wished  to  make  the  negotiation. 
They  brought  no  goods  for  us  to  see  ;  the}-  only  spoke 
of  them  as  procurable,  showing  us  samples  that  were 
very  attractive  in  their  appearance.  They  stirred 
our  appetite  or  our  curiosity  in  the  most  astute  way. 
When  any  transaction  was  about  to  be  completed,  in 
w^ould  come  some  bustling  islander,  offering  a  better 
price  for  the  goods  and  loudly  declaring  that  he  was 
being  robbed  in  not  getting  his  opportunity;  it  was  no 
genuine  market  that  gave  special  favours  to  special 
buyers,  and  graduall}-  the  price  was  raised  till  we  had 
to  give  an  enormous  sum  for  everything  we  bought. 
We  had  also  to  buy  by  samples;  for  it  was  asserted  that 
the  mass  of  goods  could  not  be  brought  down  to  the 
beach  till  they  were  bought.  Some  of  the  superfluities 
that  we  had  on  board  thej'  decried,  but  said  that  they 
would  be  glad  to  sell  for  us.  They  did  not  care  for 
them  ;  but  if  they  were  offered  ver^^  cheap  they  might 
take  them  off  our  hands  to  oblige  those  who  had 
bought  so  much  from  them.  When  the}-  had  beaten 
our  price  down  to  little  or  nothing,  some  newcomer 
would  press  forward  and  offer  similar  goods  at  a  lower 
price.     At  last  they  got  our  surplus  practically  as  a  gift. 


356  Riallaro 

"  When  we  had  completed  our  negotiations  and 
thought  we  had  bought  enough  stores  and  fuel  to  last 
several  months,  we  went  off  to  the  ship,  and  the  goods 
began  to  arrive  in  fallas.  They  were  in  boxes  or  well- 
covered  bundles.  Not  till  we  had  sailed  did  we  find  on 
opening  our  purchases  that  half  of  them  were  rotten 
or  worthless,  and  that  in  the  boxes  that  contained  the 
fuel,  stones  filled  half  the  space. 

"These  Grabawlians  had  the  foundations  of  their 
houses  of  gold.  They  would  not  let  one  coin  of  the 
precious  metal  pass  out  of  their  hands  if  they  could 
help  it.  They  were  the  great  barterers  of  the  archi- 
pelago, and  took  the  goods  of  one  island  to  trade  off 
for  the  goods  of  another,  and  wherever  they  could  they 
got  gold  as  the  net  result,  till  their  island  was  filled  with 
the  metal.  We  had  seen  that  they  were  half-starved, 
the  only  flourishing  feature  of  their  faces  being  their 
nose,  which  protruded  over  their  lips,  and  gave  a  foxy 
appearance  to  their  faces.  They  starved  themselves 
to  get  more  gold.  They  lied  and  cheated  that  they 
might  add  even  one  coin  to  their  heap.  Again  and 
again  were  they  found  by  their  neighbours  famishing  ; 
nor  would  they  give  any  of  the  treasures,  on  which 
they  lay  dying,  to  pay  for  the  food  that  was  brought 
to  them.  They  were  always  in  dread  of  pirates  and 
freebooters,  for  ever  and  again  through  the  centuries 
some  warlike  people  bore  down  on  them  and  carried  off 
the  accumulations  of  ages.  Blastemo  himself  acknow- 
ledged that  it  was  no  infrequent  thing  for  his  island  to 
pick  a  quarrel  with  them  and  rob  them  in  war  of  their 
savings.  They  were  the  milch-cows  of  the  archipelago. 
Their  gold  was  a  mere  encumbrance  to  them.  It  was 
better  to  be  distributed  again. 

' '  After  all  the  useless  stores  and  the  stones  out  of  the 


The  Voyage  Continued  357 

fuel  had  been  thrown  overboard,  we  calculated  that  we 
had  remaining  enough  to  last  for  a  month  or  six  wrecks. 
We  were  about  to  make  again  for  Broolyi,  when  a 
boat  from  Tirralaria  informed  us  that  5'ou  were  intend- 
ing to  reach  Figlefia  and  embark  there.  When  off  that 
island  awaiting  orders,  a  slave  in  a  canoe  came  off  in  the 
darkness  and  bade  us  sail  for  the  uninhabited  side  of 
the  island  if  we  would  save  you  from  destruction  ;  and 
he  indicated  the  bay  where  we  ought  to  anchor  that 
night.  We  were  doubtful  ;  but  w-e  carried  out  his  in- 
structions. And  the  result  is  that  we  have  you  now 
with  us." 

Burns  showed  considerable  agitation  over  their  ad- 
ventures and  over  my  return.  I  had  interrupted  him 
with  many  a  question  which  had  broken  the  even  flow 
of  his  narrative  and  lessened  his  emotion  as  he  pro- 
ceeded. He  and  the  others  evidently  expected  an  ac- 
count of  my  wanderings  ;  but  I  was  too  much  excited, 
too  rent  with  conflicting  melanchoh'  and  J03-,  to  accede 
fully  to  their  request  ;  and  I  gave  them  but  a  rough 
outline  of  all  I  had  done  and  suffered.  The  scars  had 
not  3'et  healed  in  mj'  spirit  ;  the  thoughts  over  life  that 
mj'  experiences  had  stirred  in  my  breast  were  too  crude 
and  sorrowful  to  find  consolation  in  utterance  ;  so  I 
paced  the  deck  for  days  in  solitary  meditation. 

Nothing  could  keep  me  long  from  the  problem  of 
problems,  the  central  mysterj'  of  the  archipelago. 
What  was  that  land  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  vari- 
ous islands  never  had  long  out  of  their  thoughts,  but 
which  they  so  carefull}-  avoided  in  speech  ?  When 
forced  to  mention  it,  they  pretended  to  shudder  at  it  as 
an  island  of  devils.  None  of  them  seemed  to  have 
visited  it  or  to  have  had  an}-  personal  knowledge  of  it 
for  many  centuries.     Their  fear  of  it  had  crystallised 


OD 


8  Riallaro 


into  myths  of  horror.  For  ages  they  had  made  fitful 
attempts  to  approach  it,  and  failed,  and  at  last  a  fence 
of  impenetrable  darkness  and  terror  held  them  far  off 
from  it  ;  and  the  fear  that  paralysed  every  energy,  if 
ever  their  ships  came  within  sight  of  its  shining  peak 
on  the  far  horizon,  had  taken  permanent  shape  in  their 
traditions  and  stories  of  the  isle  of  devils.  What  it 
really  was  had  faded  into  twilight,  and  the  veil  of  the 
supernatural  had  finally  shut  it  out  from  human  view. 
It  was  useless  to  attempt  analysis  of  the  pictured  cur- 
tain of  tradition.  The  fabric  would  vanish  in  the  pro- 
cess instead  of  revealing  its  original  texture.  Once 
and  once  only  had  I  seen  the  pure  sheen  of  its  highest 
snow-clad  mountain  above  the  rim  of  the  sea  ;  and  at 
the  sight  I  resolved  to  reach  it,  cost  what  it  would.  I 
looked  forward  to  our  visit  to  Broolyi  with  no  special 
interest  except  as  preparatory  for  the  great  expedition, 
I  would  say  nothing  of  it  to  Blastemo  or  his  country- 
men, lest  they  should  discourage  my  men  or  otherwise 
stand  in  my  w^ay.  Nor  would  I  confide  at  first  in  my 
comrades,  not  indeed  till  I  had  seen  my  way  clearly, 
and  got  all  my  methods  of  preparation  mapped  out. 
They  set  my  absorption  down  to  my  past  adventures, 
and  I  kept  ray  own  counsel  whilst  I  inquired  into  the 
conditions  of  my  problem  and  found  the  possibility 
of  a  solution. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 


BROOLYI 


DURING  the  latter  part  of  our  conferences  Blasterno 
had  fallen  silent  ;  his  oaths  and  wild  exclam- 
ations had  first  grown  less  frequent  and  then  ceased. 
When  I  looked  to  find  the  cause  of  the  break  in  the 
torrent,  I  laughed  to  see  the  rubicund  face  blanched, 
and  instead  of  the  usual  militant  boldness  of  the  ex- 
pression a  tremulous  light  in  the  eye.  Sandy  Macrae 
at  a  gesture  from  me  helped  him  below  and  we  saw 
no  more  of  him  for  days,  and  heard  nothing  either 
but  long-intervalled  groans  of  agon}-.  For  the  wind 
had  freshened  ahead,  and,  as  something  or  other  had 
disturbed  the  compasses,  we  could  not  tell  whether 
we  were  keeping  our  course  or  not.  We  steered  by 
the  sun;  and,  as  we  had  not  our  pilot  to  correct  us, 
we  had  gradually  shot  far  past  our  destination,  and  a 
current  had  carried  us  away  to  the  east. 

Before  daybreak  on  the  third  day  our  lookout  called 
our  attention  to  a  strange  object  on  the  horizon  all 
gleaming  white.  At  first  the  captain  thought  it  was 
an  iceberg  wandered  into  these  tropical  regions,  but 
as  the  sun  forged  up  towards  the  rim  of  sky  the  ever- 
shifting  tints  that  it  threw  over  the  vault  revealed  to 
him  that  it  was  a  snow-peak  on  whose  top  lay  a  wreath 

359 


360  Riallaro 

of  white  filmy  wool  like  a  cloud.  As  the  sunlight 
strengthened,  they  saw  the  wool-festoon  float  out  like 
a  pennon,  tinged  with  the  scarlet  and  gold  of  the  dawn. 
The  stars  grew  dim  and  winked  out.  The  day  broad- 
ened into  a  glare,  and  still  the  peak  stood  firm  with  its 
pennant  of  steam. 

I  was  called,  and  I  knew  what  it  was  they  had  been 
watching.  It  was  the  mystery  of  mysteries,  the  Isle  of 
Devils,  that  was  thrusting  up  its  snow-peak  into  the 
sky.  I  bade  Burns  steer  straight  for  it,  and  the  wind 
that  still  blew  fresh  from  the  north-west  was  with  us. 
The  gleaming  cone  grew  loftier  and  more  beautiful  in 
its  outline,  and  past  noon  we  could  see  the  cloud- 
turbaned  peaks  that  flanked  it  begin  to  show  beneath 
its  radiance.  vStill  we  pushed  on,  and,  as  the  sun  shot 
his  western  shuttle  through  his  great  web  of  rays,  and 
we  could  see  the  land  darken  at  the  roots  of  the  peak 
of  snow,  a  strange  circumstance  occurred.  There  came 
over  the  heavens  a  glossy  look  as  if  we  were  moving 
under  a  dome  of  crystal  closer  to  us  than  the  azure  of 
the  sky.  It  was  an  occurrence  I  had  noticed  once  or 
twice  before,  but  I  could  get  no  satisfactory  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomenon.  It  was  like  the  glitter  of  the 
sky  on  a  morning  of  keen  frost,  that  is  just  about  to  be 
followed  by  a  tempest  of  rain  ;  and  what  made  it 
stranger  was  that  the 'crystalline  dome  vanished  as 
suddenly  as  it  had  come.  The  stars  came  out  with  a 
precipitance  that  alarmed  us.  We  had  not  time  to  re- 
cover from  our  terror  when  a  shout  rose  from  the  bow, 
"  Breakers  ahead."  We  had  but  a  few  moments  to 
bring  her  round  and  lower  the  sails,  and  together  the 
sea  and  the  wind  struck  us  with  a  thud  and  made  the 
ship  stagger.  I  thought  she  would  go  to  the  bottom, 
she  heeled  with  such  suddenness  and  shipped  such 


Broolyi  3^1 

a  mass  of  water.  The  masts  broke  like  reeds,  and 
the  yards  thundered  down  upon  the  deck. 

In  the  midst  of  the  commotion  I  saw  Blastemo  rush 
towards  me  over  the  wreckage,  the  pallor  gone  from  his 
face.  It  was  now  livid  with  terror.  He  looked  for  a 
moment  to  the  horizon,  and  then  to  the  smooth  sea 
that  la}'  on  either  side  of  the  tornado.  He  seized  me 
by  the  arm  and  in  a  hoarse  whisper  begged  me  to  hurry 
away  from  the  accursed  peak  that  still  shone  clear  over 
our  stern.  Within  half  an  hour  we  were  in  as  peaceful 
an  atmosphere  and  sea  as  we  had  had  ;  not  a  trace  of 
the  storm  or  of  the  troubled  water  was  to  be  seen. 
Even  the  long  roll  of  billows  with  which  we  had  run 
so  long  had  vanished.  As  we  cleared  away  the  wreck- 
age, our  guest  lay  down  exhausted  on  the  deck.  In  a 
whisper  of  terror  he  told  me  the  same  story  as  I  had 
heard  from  other  islanders.  None  of  them  had  ever 
been  able  to  approach  the  Isle  of  Devils  ;  everj^  ship 
that  had  made  the  attempt  had  been  disabled  and 
blown  off.  This  had  been  the  case  for  long  centuries, 
although  there  was  a  dim  tradition  that  their  ancestors 
had  come  from  it  in  vessels.  The  shock  seemed  to 
have  driven  out  his  sea-sickness  to  some  extent,  and  he 
kept  by  the  man  at  the  wheel  till  we  were  out  of  sight 
of  the  snow-peak.  Before  he  left  the  deck  he  gave 
such  instructions  as  to  the  route  that  no  mistake  could 
be  made  again. 

Even  this  would  not  satisfy  him,  and  in  spite  of 
his  recurrent  pallidity  he  returned  to  his  post  in  the 
morning  and  watched  every  point  on  the  horizon  to  see 
that  we  should  not  deviate  as  we  did  before.  In  three 
more  days  of  light  winds  and  calms  we  came  in  sight 
of  a  land  that  filled  him  with  almost  uncontrollable  de- 
light.    He  recognised  its  first  dim  outline  upon  the 


o 


62  Riallaro 


horizon  as  his  own.  As  we  approached  it,  its  sierra 
rose  boldly  into  the  heavens,  though  rarely  to  the  line 
of  perpetual  snow.  Great  ranges  of  mountains  seemed 
to  divide  it  into  isolated  corners,  and  jutted  into  the 
ocean  in  beetling  precipices  that  forbade  too  close  ap- 
proach to  the  angry  snarl  of  their  surf.  It  was  in 
every  feature  of  it  the  home  of  warlike  tribes  bastioned 
against  mutual  peace  and  intercourse.  I  was  much 
amused,  therefore,  to  hear  Blastemo  break  into  an  in- 
vocation to  his  fatherland  as  the  home  of  all  that  was 
noble  and  peace-loving.  He  repeated  its  name  again 
and  again  with  eulogistic  epithets,  "  noble,  pacific 
Broolyi  ";  and,  seeing  us  stand  b}'  unenthusiastic,  he 
tried  to  rouse  us  by  explaining  that  the  name  meant 
Isle  of  Peace,  for  the  inhabitants  were  engaged  in  con- 
verting the  whole  archipelago  to  its  doctrine  of  peace  ; 
they  were  the  great  missionaries  of  the  gospel  of  peace 
to  a  world  given  over  to  war  and  mutual  hatred.  The 
confused  swell  near  the  iron-bound  coast  relieved  us  of 
the  need  of  reply;  for  he  quietly  collapsed  and  sought 
a  recumbent  posture  below. 

We  ran  north  along  the  wild  scene  of  sheer  cliffs. 
Solitary  bird  haunts  waist-deep  in  the  sullen  billows, 
monstrous  toothed  jaws  angrily  churning  the  waters 
that  ebbed  and  flowed  across  them,  hollow-sounding 
caves  that  echoed  to  the  splash  and  boom  of  the  sea 
and  to  the  screams  of  disturbed  flashes  of  winged  life, 
varied  the  monotony  of  the  adamant  bulwark  of  nature. 
A  note  of  everlasting  war  between  land  and  sea  sounded 
hoarse  along  the  shore,  and  ever  as  we  approached  there 
rang  out  the  wild  challenge  of  the  torn  and  recoiling 
waves.  The  marks  of  the  unending  warfare  of  cent- 
uries lay  in  the  reefs  and  outl3'ing  fragments  of  rock 
that  chafed  the  waters  as  they  flowed.     It  was  indeed 


Broolyi  3^3 

a  conflict  of  Titans,  whose  chief  ally  and  source  of 
power  was  Time.  Round  great  headlands  we  swept 
that  mocked  and  baffled  the  high-flashing  onslaught 
of  the  immortal  enemy.  How  many  generations  of 
men  had  wailed  into  life,  grown,  fought  tooth  and  nail, 
and  lapsed  into  the  grave,  since  these  browbeaten  cliffs 
had  begun  to  outface  the  passions  of  their  restless  foe  ! 

We  rounded  one  foreland  more  colossal  and  over- 
hanging than  any  ;  but  its  fantastic  shapes  held  us 
only  a  moment,  for  beyond,  the  land  rapidly  fell  into 
a  broad  valley,  and  there  two  embattled  bodies  of  men 
were  busy  hacking  and  hewing  each  other.  Their 
armour  clashed  under  the  strokes,  fierce  shouts  issued 
from  those  that  were  hurrying  from  the  rear,  and  a 
minor  undercurrent  of  sound  was  a  medle\^  of  wails  and 
groans.  The  crew  were  soon  all  on  deck  absorbed  in 
the  new  spectacle.  Even  Blastemo  had  recovered  and 
ascended.  He  looked  on  from  a  modest  hiding-place 
in  the  rear;  but,  as  soon  as  we  saw  him,  we  burst  into 
a  roar  of  laughter,  remembering  his  recent  eulogies  of 
peace  and  of  the  pacific  nature  of  his  countrymen.  He 
knew  what  we  meant,  and  slunk  below  again. 

I  had  occasion  to  go  soon  after  to  my  cabin,  and 
I  found  him  pacing  the  floor  in  wild  agitation.  The 
sound  of  the  clashing  arms  and  the  shouts  and  groans 
reached  him  even  here,  and  he  saw,  though  dimly, 
through  the  thick  glass  of  the  port-hole  the  swaying 
masses  and  the  give-and-take  of  the  combat.  His  blood 
was  in  ferment,  and  he  pleaded  with  me  to  put  him  on 
shore,  that  he  might  join  in  the  struggle.  It  mad- 
dened him  to  hear  the  clangour  and  not  be  in  the  midst 
of  the  fray.  He  confessed  that  he  had  not  looked  closely 
or  long  enough  to  know  who  were  the  combatants  or 
what  was  the  right  or  wrong  for  which  they  fought. 


364  Riallaro 

All  he  knew  was  that  it  was  near  the  capital  and  his 
own  district,  and  his  desire  to  keep  the  peace  was  over- 
whelming everything  else  in  him.  I  refused  to  listen  to 
his  petitions,  fearing  that  by  landing  him  we  might 
draw  the  fury  of  either  side  or  perhaps  of  both  upon  us. 
We  sped  on  and  soon  melted  the  uproar  into  a  confused 
hum  and  shut  out  the  sight  that  so  fevered  his  blood. 

Our  next  experience  was  as  exciting.  We  shot  past 
the  cape  that  like  a  sheltering  arm  curled  round  the 
great  harbour  of  the  island,  and  a  city  spread  upwards 
from  it  bastioned  to  the  roofs.  And  what  a  commotion 
filled  every  parapet  and  wall  and  street  !  Never  had 
such  a  craft  been  seen  in  these  waters;  and  our  fame 
had  spread  before  us.  Every  movement  of  the  Day- 
dream, since  she  had  approached  the  island,  had  been 
messengered  to  the  city.  Banners  and  trophies  swung 
in  the  breeze.  Wild  music  made  the  air  a  hoarse  dis- 
cordant paean.  Bells  rung,  gongs  sounded,  shrill  pipes 
shot  skirling  blasts  into  the  ear  of  heaven.  Marchings 
and  countermarchings  of  squares  and  rectangles  of 
blue  and  green  and  scarlet  humanity  made  a  moving 
tartan  of  the  shore.  The  chromatropic  effect  was  as 
harassing  to  the  eye  as  the  clangour  to  the  ear.  Puffs 
of  acrid  smoke  obscured  the  air  at  intervals.  At  a 
distance  it  was  alarming.  What  would  it  be  near  at 
our  hand  ?  The  whole  armed  population  was  evidently 
in  motion.  Our  guest,  mad  though  he  was  with  excite- 
ment, managed  to  reassure  us,  and,  taking  from  his 
cabin  a  small  blue-green  and  red  pennon,  flung  it  out 
from  our  poop.  The  effect  was  instantaneous.  The 
commotion  ceased.  The  troops  wheeled  and  marched 
inland,  and  soon  only  the  ununiformed  crowd  were  left 
to  watch  us  as  we  swept  up  to  an  anchorage  within  a 
breastwork  of  the  harbour. 


Broolyi  3^5 

The  night  fell,  and  silence  shed  its  sleep  upon  the 
many-coloured,  myriad-noted  world.  With  the  morn- 
ing returned  the  bustle  and  skirl  and  brazen  echo  of  a 
warlike  community.  Everything,  as  we  looked  out  to 
the  shore,  seemed  to  move  to  disciplinary  rhythm.  I 
went  to  the  royal  levee  with  Blastemo,  and,  after  he 
had  prelected  to  the  courtiers  and  the  king  in  a  lan- 
guage that  I  did  not  understand,  I  was  addressed  from 
the  throne  in  Aleofanian.  I  could  see  from  the  speech 
that  my  fireship  had  deeply  impressed  the  community 
and  especially  the  governors  of  Broolyi,  but  their 
warlike  purpose  and  employments  were  veiled  in  eulo- 
gies of  their  mission  of  peace.  Peace  was  the  ideal  and 
prayer  of  their  inmost  souls,  and  this  fireship  of  mine 
would  enable  them  to  fulfil  it  the  sooner.  It  was  diffi- 
cult to  disentangle  this  from  the  labyrinth  of  ceremonies 
and  gestures,  verbiage  and  oaths,  that  seemed  to  form 
the  very  heart  of  Broolyian  civilisation.  Every  climax 
reached  by  the  monarchic  eloquence  we  heard  echoed 
outside  of  the  palace  by  the  roll  of  drums  and  the  air- 
splitting  shrill  of  pipes.  The  whole  life  of  the  com- 
munity seemed  to  move  to  machinery  that  centred  in 
the  court. 

This  I  afterwards  found  was  no  mere  metaphor 
or  fancy.  The  next  day  was  their  great  festival  of  the 
week,  and  the  people  crowded  into  the  temples  to  wor- 
ship the  gods.  None  worked  or  were  supposed  to  work. 
I  went  with  Blastemo  first  to  one  sacred  building  and 
then  to  another  ;  and  I  was  struck  with  the  fact  that 
everything  seemed  to  proceed  as  by  clockwork,  the 
nuisic,  the  sermon,  the  genuflections  of  the  priest. 
"  You  are  right,"  said  my  guide.  "  And  I  will  show 
you  how  the  whole  thing  is  worked." 

He  took  me  to  an  enormous  hall  behind  the  palace. 


366  Riallaro 

It  was  like  a  huge  factory,  so  full  was  it  of  machinery, 
all  in  motion.  It  was,  indeed,  he  assured  me,  a  re- 
ligion factor}',  one  of  the  grandest  institutions  in  the 
world.  This  controlled  all  the  services  in  the  temples 
of  the  island.  He  took  me  to  one  great  machine  that 
had  on  a  capacious  barrel  all  the  litanies  of  the  year. 
At  the  moment  we  came  up  it  was  started  by  the 
controller  of  religious  services,  who  sat  in  a  recess 
of  the  inner  hall  of  the  king's  palace.  We  heard  a 
pra3'er  to  the  god  of  peace  most  painfully  and  articu- 
lately intoned.  I  did  not  understand  the  words,  but 
I  could  make  out  from  the  tones  in  which  they  were 
uttered  the  changes  of  meaning  and  spiritual  atti- 
tude. It  was  marvellous,  the  solemnity  of  the  effect, 
provided  we  shut  our  eyes  ;  there  was  such  majesty  in 
the  volume  of  the  sound  and  in  the  elocutionary  varia- 
tions of  the  tone  ;  one  might  have  imagined  a  vast  as- 
sembly pouring  forth  in  unison  a  submissive  appeal  to 
heaven.  In  the  temple  the  clack  and  shuttling  of 
the  machinery  were  not  heard  ;  instead  of  it  there  was 
an  automatic  priest  magnificently  clothed,  bowing  and 
posturing  to  suit  the  word.  It  was  only  a  wax  figure 
containing  clockwork  controlled  by  this  great  litany 
machine,  but  the  effect  was  like  life,  or  rather  much 
more  impressive.  There  was  none  of  the  hawking  and 
hemming  of  the  human  priest,  none  of  his  awkward 
pauses  and  blowings  of  the  nose,  none  of  the  clumsy 
gestures  or  inability  to  dispose  of  the  hands;  and  the 
voice  rang  out  through  the  great  buildings  with  a  bell- 
like clearness  and  naturalness  that  would  have  made 
the  human  voice  seem  bathos.  How  feeble  and  tremu- 
lous, I  remembered,  buzzed  the  voices  of  the  priests  I 
had  heard  intoning  in  the  cathedrals  of  Europe!  I  felt 
almost  ashamed  of  the  memory. 


Broolyi  3^7 

With  a  whirr  and  a  click  the  litany  machine  stopped, 
and  the  processional  machine  took  up  the  tale.  There 
was  more  noise  and  clang  in  this,  for  more  force  had 
to  be  applied  ;  a  hundred  or  more  processions  of  mari- 
onette acolytes  and  priests  through  the  various  temples 
of  the  island  were  impelled  by  it.  There  was  a  mani- 
fest rhythm  in  its  motions,  almost  like  the  sound  of  a 
stately  minuet.  I  saw  these  processions  afterwards  ; 
and  nothing  could  exceed  the  solemnity  of  the  motions 
of  the  man-like  fantoccini.  I  nev^er  saw  such  an  impres- 
sive ceremonial  ;  every  step,  every  gesture  was  in  har- 
mon}'  ;  there  was  no  unseemly  merriment  in  the  eyes 
or  conversation  on  the  lips  of  the  youthful  figures  ;  and 
the  chanting  was  so  noble  and  beautiful,  filling  as  it 
did  the  whole  vast  edifice  with  its  mournful,  or  jubilant 
sound.  The  service  was  well  through  before  I  had 
come  into  the  religion  factory,  and  the  only  other  ma- 
chine I  saw  at  work  was  that  which  produced  the  music. 
It  was  in  an  adjoining  hall,  which  was  filled  with 
thousands  of  pipes  of  the  most  varied  size  and  con- 
struction. There  sat  the  musician,  and  the  whole 
iniilding  trembled  as  the  keys  were  struck.  It  was 
intolerable  ;  the  groaning  and  thunder  it  produced 
made  the  very  tips  of  our  ears  to  shake.  But  when 
delivered  by  tubes  or  wires  into  the  vast  temples  of  the 
country,  nothing  could  surpass  the  softness  and  har- 
mony of  the  volume  of  sound. 

One  large  edifice  served  for  the  central  section  of  the 
town  ;  it  was  spacious  enough  to  contain  everj'  man, 
woman,  and  child  that  lived  in  the  district.  Each 
suburb  had  a  smaller  temple,  yet  large  enough  to 
dwarf  the  cathedrals  of  England.  I  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  them,  and  ever}-  weekh'  festival  I  visited  one 
or  more  of  them.     I  was  especially  anxious  to  hear  the 


368  Riallaro 

sermon  or  prelection.  The  lay-figure  rose  and  moved 
his  eyes  and  lips  and  his  arms  and  body  to  suit  the 
words  that  were  uttered.  The  whole  of  the  audience 
was  too  distant  from  it  to  distinguish  the  movements  ; 
and  the  wax  lifelessness  of  the  face,  which  I  made  out 
when,  after  the  service,  I  approached  it,  could  not  have 
been  seen  by  any  of  the  worshippers,  so  far  aloft  was  it 
perched  in  a  pulpit  on  the  farthest  wall.  The  tones 
reached  every  ear  in  the  huge  edifice,  and  their  modu- 
lation and  expression  were  perfect.  I  conjectured  that 
the  sermon  had  been  spoken  into  some  recorder  before, 
and  that  this  reproduced  it  by  machinery  on  some  dia- 
phragm in  each  church,  and  that  over  the  diaphragm 
was  fixed  some  instrument  inside  the  lay-figure  for 
multiplying  many  times  the  volume  of  the  sound. 

The  illusion  was  complete.  I  never  heard  oratory 
so  impressive,  or  religious  service  so  solemnly  per- 
formed. The  sermon  was,  Blastemo  told  me,  a  dis- 
course on  peace  as  the  aim  of  all  mankind.  It  painted 
the  horrors  of  war,  and  brought  out  in  contrast  a  por- 
trait of  the  man  of  the  millennium,  who  would  have  his 
passions  so  under  control  that  nothing  would  rouse  him 
to  anger  or  strife.  It  closed  with  a  vindication  of  the 
warlike  policy  for  reaching  this  great  ideal.  Nothing 
but  continual  and  effective  warfare  would  make  men 
afraid  to  quarrel  or  bring  their  quarrel  to  issue.  The 
ebullience  of  the  passions  of  the  world  was  to  be 
mastered  by  fear.  When  they  had  brought  warfare 
to  the  perfection  of  destructiveness,  all  wars  would 
cease  ;  terror  of  death  would  be  the  universal  guiding 
motive  of  communities  and  individuals.  Then  would 
the  god  of  peace  have  voice  through  the  whole  world, 
for  he  would  have  his  mentor  in  ever)'  human  breast 
in  every  assembl}^,  the  knowledge  that  any  strife  must 


Broolyi  369 

end  in  the  annihilation  of  all  those  who  take  part  in  it. 
The  peroration  was  fervid  in  its  appeal  to  the  worship- 
pers to  pursue  warfare  till  it  should  be  absolute  in  its 
annihilative  power. 

I  was  deepl}'  impressed  by  the  whole  performance  ; 
never  did  it  approach  to  that  bathos  which,  I  remem- 
bered, had  so  often  marred  the  services  in  even  the 
greatest  cathedrals  and  churches  of  the  various  divi- 
sions of  Christianity.  There  was  no  halting  in  the 
orator}',  no  feebleness  of  voice,  no  ridiculous  straining 
of  the  nervous  or  muscular  power.  There  was  no  hitch 
in  the  processions  or  ceremonies,  nothing  pinchbeck  or 
tawdry  or  mean.  The  music  was  noble,  and  in  its 
softening  and  shading  as  fine  as  the  massing  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  human  voices,  there  was  no  discord,  no 
jar.  The  effect  of  the  whole  was  uniform,  deep,  and 
abiding. 

Yet  I  could  not  get  out  of  mind  the  cogs  and 
wheels  and  keys  of  the  religion  factory,  the  workmen 
moving  about  seeing  that  the  machinery  was  well 
oiled  and  that  it  worked  without  chance  of  breakdown, 
the  solitary  performer  sitting  at  the  keyboard,  and  the 
king's  minister  in  the  royal  recess  grinding  out  the 
service.  I  expressed  my  feelings  to  Blastemo  as  we 
walked  away,  and  he  warmly  defended  the  method 
of  his  country.  They  had  had  in  the  past  a  priesthood 
attached  to  the  various  temples,  but  it  had  been 
found  that  their  lives  so  differed  from  their  teachings 
that  the  people  laughed  at  the  whole  of  religion  as 
a  farce.  The  performances  and  discourses  were  so 
feeble  or  extravagant  or  grotesque  that  the  buildings 
were  deserted  as  a  rule,  or,  if  one  was  frequented, 
it  was  by  a  wild  crowd  of  enthusiasts  stirred  by  some 
mad  preacher   to   a   crusade   against   law,    order,    or 


^7^  Riallaro 

progress.  The  church  and  religion  had  grown  a  scan- 
dal. Women  were  the  onlj^  regular  worshippers,  and 
they  were  in  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  priests,  who 
used  them  against  the  aims  and  ideals  of  the  gov^ernment 
and  the  communit}'.  The  state  tried  for  a  time  the 
effect  of  adding  to  the  creed  a  dogma  that  the  religious 
efficacy  of  the  services  was  quite  independent  of  the 
character  of  the  priests  ;  it  came  direct  from  heaven, 
and  the  pollution  of  the  vessel  or  channel  did  not  mar 
the  divine  influence.  It  was  all  in  vain.  It  did  not 
bring  the  men  to  church  ;  and  it  only  hurried  on  the 
degeneracy  of  the  priesthood.  The  church  became  the 
nest  of  all  the  unclean  and  revolutionary  characters 
in  the  communit5^  Again  and  again  it  threatened  the 
safet}'  of  the  state  by  instilling  a  rebellious  spirit  into 
the  women,  and  through  them  into  the  youths  of  the 
nation  during  a  serious  war  with  a  neighbour.  Some- 
thing had  to  be  done.  There  were  the  grand  old 
temples;  there  was  the  litany  of  the  state  religion  con- 
secrated b}^  long  generations  of  worshippers;  and  yet 
the  institution  was  but  a  lurking-place  for  the  indo- 
lent and  voluptuous  and  hypocritical  and  rebellious  in 
masculine  breasts.  The  endowments  had  fallen  into  a 
hopeless  state.  The  finances  were  quite  inadequate. 
The  worshippers  would  not  support  their  own  services. 
There  was  a  great  statesman  at  the  helm  of  affairs, 
the  ablest  monarch  that  had  ever  been  selected  by  the 
council  of  wase  warriors.  He  saw  his  opportunity. 
He  happened  to  have  one  of  the  most  original  and 
inventive  engineers  as  his  right  hand  man  for  the 
manufacture  and  superintendence  of  war  material. 
This  latter  had  landed  on  the  shores  of  Broolyi  they 
knew  not  whence.  In  these  islands  they  ask  no  ques- 
tions but  accept  what  the  gods  send  them.     The  two 


Broolyi  371 


together  elaborated  the  existing  religious  system.  The 
dogma  that  the  divine  influence  was  altogether  irre- 
spective of  the  channel  or  priest  had  thoroughly  soaked 
into  the  natures  of  the  worshippers  from  the  sermons 
of  the  preachers  ;  and  it  was  easy  to  turn  the  flank 
of  the  doctrine  by  showing  that  automatic  priests  would 
have  least  effect  of  all  upon  the  religious  elements  that 
came  through  them.  They  would  be  completely  neu- 
tral like  the  air  or  the  ether  through  which  the  gods 
influenced  the  minds  of  men. 

There  was  some  talk  of  rebellion  when  the  system 
was  changed ;  but  most  of  the  priests  were  too  mani- 
festly disreputable  or  characterless  to  bring  much  in- 
fluence to  bear.  They  were  banished  to  the  islands 
that  were  occupied  by  the  non-moral  religionists,  and 
were  never  heard  of  more.  The  women  were  only  too 
glad  to  see  the  services  conducted  in  order  and  decency, 
whilst  the  men  saw  with  pleasure  the  rotten  finances 
taken  up  by  the  state.  It  was  one  of  the  most  peaceful 
and  natural  changes  that  ever  occurred;  and  now  the 
temples  were  filled  with  men  as  well  as  women.  The 
music  was  splendid,  the  ceremonies  solemn,  the  dis- 
courses worth  listening  to.  It  cost  far  less.  It  was 
absolutely  controlled  by  the  state,  and  all  throughout 
the  island  had  the  same  spiritual  fare. 

I  suggested  to  Blastemo  that  there  was  surely  great 
monotony  in  having  the  same  thing  year  in,  year  out, 
every  festival.  He  laughed  at  my  simplicity.  The 
monarch  and  the  engineer  had  fully  provided  for  that 
feature  of  human  nature  which  makes  it  weary  of  mere 
repetition.  The  finest  imaginations  of  the  country  were 
employed  in  writing  discourses;  the  best  musicians  spent 
most  of  their  time  in  composing  the  hymns  and  songs  ; 
the  finest  theatrical  talent  and  the  most  devout  minds 


372  Riallaro 

combined  to  make  new  ceremonies  and  services. 
That  was  the  reason  there  was  not  standing  room  in 
most  of  the  temples  of  the  country.  Everything  was 
under  the  eye  of  the  king  and  his  wise  warriors.  It 
was  one  of  the  most  effective  disciplines  that  ever  state 
had  had  in  its  hands  ;  the  state-organised  church  of 
Aleofane  was  not  to  be  compared  to  it.  The  souls  of 
the  community  were  regimented  like  their  bodies. 

I  was  silenced ;  but  any  doubt  of  the  efficacy  of  the 
institution  was  not  dissipated  when  I  heard  that  it  was 
still  comparatively  new.  The  monarch  had  not  long 
since  died,  and  the  engineer  was  still  living.  It  had 
still  to  be  tested  by  time,  and  the  attraction  of  novelty 
had  not  yet  worn  off.  Yet  I  had  to  acknowledge  that 
it  was  a  most  effective  method  of  ridding  a  state  church 
of  irregularities  and  keeping  a  strong  hand  over  the 
minds  of  the  community.  Whether  it  would  allow  the 
civilisation  to  advance  was  another  question.  Orig- 
inality would  soon  be  a  thing  inconceivable  in  the 
island,  if  it  were  not  already  completely  dead.  Peace 
in  the  spiritual  world  had  been  reached,  but  at  the  ex- 
pense of  all  new  thought  or  individuality  of  character. 

When  I  heard  that  the  inventor  of  this  automatic 
worship  w-as  still  alive,  I  felt  eager  to  see  him,  certain 
as  I  was  that  he  must  be  a  man  of  remarkable  powers; 
but  I  found  great  difficulty  in  getting  Blastemo  or 
anyone  else  to  tell  me  about  him.  Since  the  election 
of  the  new  monarch,  I  ascertained  by  sundry  hints,  he 
had  been  in  exile.  Where  he  was  imprisoned  I  could 
not  find  out.  His  great  capacity  and  his  ever-advanc- 
ing thought  had  manifestly  aroused  the  jealousy  of  the 
new  occupant  of  the  throne.  Hence,  I  conjectured,  it 
was  that  the  new  arts  of  war  had  grown  abortive, 
promise  though  they  once  did  to  go  far  towards  the 


Broolyi  373 

ideal  of  absolute  destructiveness  which  would  lead  to 
universal  peace.  I  saw  that  he  or  someone  else  had 
introduced  an  explosive,  which  might,  with  improve- 
ments, have  made  as  effective  a  means  of  war  as  Euro- 
pean gunpowder.  It  had  enabled  the  last  king  to 
batter  down  the  fortress-mansions  of  his  nobles  in  the 
country  and  drive  them  to  settle  round  the  court  and 
abandon  their  continual  little  internecine  wars.  Under 
his  successor,  the  makers  of  the  explosive  had  lost  its 
true  secret  ;  and  the  baronial  castles  were  rebuilding, 
in  spite  of  the  threats  of  royal  displeasure.  This  was 
the  meaning  of  the  battle  we  had  seeu  before  arriving 
at  the  harbour  ;  two  nobles  were  settling  a  quarrel  in 
the  old  way,  heedless  of  royal  power  or  judicial  courts. 
Whilst  I  was  in  Broolyi  I  saw  hundreds  of  quarrels 
that  were  settled  by  duels  The  Broolyians  had  no 
control  over  their  tempers,  and  during  the  reign  of 
the  explosive  they  had  given  free  play  to  them,  as  the}' 
knew  that  the  result  would  be  no  risk  of  life,  but  onl}' 
to  property  in  settlement  before  the  law-courts.  It  was 
like  living  over  a  gunpowder  magazine,  and  I  av^oided 
intercourse  with  these  spitfires.  Indeed,  it  was  difficult 
to  conduct  without  hitch  the  commonest  conversation 
with  Blastemo,  now  he  had  returned  to  his  native  fire- 
damp of  an  atmosphere.  Nothing  but  isolated  residence 
in  fortified  keeps  with  miles  of  morass  or  mountain  or 
forest  between  them  could  ever  insure  peace  amongst 
such  a  people.  To  think  that  the  name  of  their  coun- 
try was  "  Isle  of  Peace,"  and  that  the  great  object  of 
their  worship  was  the  god  of  peace  ! 

One  day  I  heard  of  another  community  off  the  farther 
coast  of  Brool3'i  ;  it  was  said  to  exist  without  govern- 
ment or  institutions  of  any  kind.  My  curiosity  was 
excited,  and,  though  on  inquiry  I  found  that  it  was  the 


374  Riallaro 

exile  asylum  of  the  archipelago  for  all  who  were 
plagued  with  the  craze  of  anarchism,  I  resolved  to  see 
the  island  for  m3'self.  They  could  not  laugh  me  out 
of  my  determination,  and  I  at  last  procured  a  royal 
passport  that  w'ould  pass  me  over  the  intervening  dis- 
tricts in  safety.  For  the  rest  I  was  to  look  after  m}'- 
self  if  I  ventured  over  the  channel  that  lay  between  the 
islands.  None  of  the  Broolyians  would  ever  risk  their 
lives  in  that  den  of  wild  beasts,  Kayoss.  It  had  been 
chosen  because  of  its  proximity  to  the  most  warlike 
people  in  the  archipelago  ;  and,  if  anj-  of  the  inhabit- 
ants attempted  to  leave  it,  the  Broolyians  were  author- 
ised to  shoot  them  down.  A  garrison  was  regularly 
established  over  against  it  for  the  purpose. 

I  set  out,  glad  to  be  free  from  the  harassing  cere- 
monial of  a  military,  machine-like,  and  yet  most 
capricious-tempered  community ;  but  it  was  a  long  and 
difficult  journey,  from  castle  to  castle,  over  mountain 
and  through  forest,  often  delayed  by  some  local 
imbroglio  or  the  jealousy  of  neighbouring  barons. 
Nothing  but  the  magnificence  of  the  scenery  could 
compensate  for  the  petty  annoyances  that  retarded  my 
passage.  Everywhere  I  could  see  that  the  military 
commonweal  was  founded  on  slave  labour.  The 
ground  was  tilled  and  the  operations  of  common  life 
were  conducted  b}^  men  of  a  different  race-  and  climate 
from  the  oath-compelling  fire-eaters  that  ruled  the 
island  ;  and  over  them  stood  overseers  with  whips  to 
urge  their  industry.  It  was  a  sorry  sight  ;  and  when 
I  looked  into  the  faces  of  the  workers,  I  could  distin- 
guish the  wreckage  of  nobler  natures  than  were  to  be 
found  in  Broolyian  breasts.  The  foreheads  were  larger, 
.the  skulls  more  capacious  ;  the  eyes  were  full  of  a  shy 
melancholy  that  seemed  to  shrink  from  investigation  ; 


Broolyi 


375 


they  had  not  the  huge  lower  jaws  of  their  masters,  or 
the  cavernous  mouths,  or  the  red  hair.  They  were  now 
but  beasts  of  burden,  and  their  limbs  were  muscular 
and  heavy  and  their  footsteps  dragging  and  torpid  ; 
but  there  was  romance  lurking  in  the  refined  linea- 
ments and  the  occasional  grace  that  shone  out  here 
and  there  amongst  them.  Whence  they  had  come 
and  what  was  their  fate  I  could  not  ascertain.  That 
they  were  not  natives  I  could  see  ;  and  that  it  was  in- 
feriority of  will  rather  than  inferiority  of  intellect  or 
imagination  or  civilisation  that  had  led  to  their  enslave- 
ment to  the  fiery-willed  Broolyians  I  could  easily  con- 
jecture from  the  ruins  of  their  past  that  peeped  out 
through  the  labour-clotted  masks  of  their  rustic  or 
artisan  life. 

I  had  to  disguise  my  interest  in  them  in  order  to  get 
through  the  country.  Any  sympathy  or  pity  would 
have  roused  the  savage  wills  of  their  masters  and  sac- 
rificed my  hopes  of  the  future,  if  not  myself,  to  the 
exaggerated  Broolyian  ideas  of  rebellion  and  the  pun- 
ishment it  demanded.  Whenever  I  could,  I  lay  in  the 
shelter  of  some  tree  or  coppice,  and  watched  the  move- 
ments of  these  interesting  relics  of  a  subjugated  civil- 
isation. Perhaps  I  might  be  able  to  do  something  for 
them  when  I  gained  a  higher  platform  of  vantage. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII 


NOOI.A 


AFTER  many  difficulties  and  delays  I  reached  the 
garrison  on  the  western  shore  of  Broolyi,  where 
it  faced  Kayoss.  I  delivered  my  pass  to  the  com- 
mandant, and  was  accommodated  with  shelter  and 
food.  The  soldiers  were  not  communicative  ;  but 
after  a  few  days  I  encountered  in  my  wanderings  on 
the  beach  one  of  the  strangest  men  that  I  had  ever 
seen,  and  he  opened  up  vistas  into  the  history  of  the 
islands.  He  was  short  in  stature,  but  so  light  and 
springy  was  he  in  his  gait  and  tread,  I  almost  thought 
that  he  never  touched  the  earth  ;  he  seemed  to  skim 
along  its  surface.  He  had  a  broad  chest  and  great 
muscular  development  of  the  shoulders  that  singularly 
contrasted  with  his  bird-like  progress.  His  head  was 
large  for  the  body,  but  finely  proportioned.  It  was 
the  face,  however,  that  most  attracted  me.  It  seemed 
almost  to  speak  to  me  as  I  passed  ;  it  carried  the  soul 
in  the  depths  of  the  eyes  and  in  the  whole  expression. 
This  soul,  I  felt  after  one  glance,  was  a  beautiful 
thing,  marred  only  by  some  deep  sorrow  that  draped  it 
in  everlasting  melancholy.  There  was  a  heaven  of 
pity  and  regret  doming  the  nature,  one  could  see  in 
the  sheen  of  the  eyes  and  the  strange  translucence  of 

376 


Noola  i"]"] 

the  features.  I  was  drawn  magnetically  to  this  new 
type  of  manhood  ;  and  yet  I  shrank  from  speech  with 
him,  his  nature  seemed  so  majestic  and  overawing. 

I  asked  in  the  garrison  concerning  him,  but  all  I 
could  find  out  was  that  he  was  an  exile  from  the  city, 
and  that  he  was  kept  under  surveillance.  It  had  been 
at  his  own  request  that  he  had  been  settled  opposite 
the  Isle  of  Anarchy.  Finding  that  there  would  be 
nothing  done  to  prevent  my  speaking  to  him  and  that 
he  knew  Aleofanian,  I  addressed  him  in  reverent  words 
the  next  time  I  met  him,  and  we  were  soon  fast 
friends.  We  met  daily  and  wandered  on  the  shore, 
and  both  of  us  seemed  to  find  unfailing  consolation  in 
the  ever-varying  music  of  the  sea,  as  it  tided  along  the 
beach,  and  answered  to  the  moods  of  sky  and  wind  and 
current  like  a  sensitive  instrument.  To  me  it  had  ever 
been  a  thing  of  life  that  sang  and  quivered  to  my  every 
impulse  and  change  of  spirit.  To  be  aw^ay  from  it  was 
to  be  forlorn  and  widowed,  and  out  of  the  reach  of  pit}' 
and  synipath3\  To  him  it  seemed  to  fill  the  same  large 
space  in  life.  His  thoughts  were  stimulated  and  made 
sublime  by  its  rhythm  ;  his  whole  existence  was  fuller 
and  more  musical  in  that  wider  sense  of  the  word 
which  applies  it  to  the  movements  of  the  worlds  on  the 
face  of  night.  I  soon  discovered  that  he  was  the  en- 
gineer who  had  centralised  and  mechanised  their  re- 
ligion for  the  Broolyians,  and  set  them  on  the  waj'  of 
fulfilling  the  object  of  their  existence  and  of  establishing 
universal  peace  by  universally  annihilative  war.  He 
confessed  that  he  had  not  been  sorry  to  leave  the  cap- 
ital and  give  up  the  petty  ambitious  with  which  he  had 
been  fired  for  a  time.  It  would  have  meant  but  little 
effort  on  his  part  to  perfect  his  explosive  and  master 
the  whole  island  for  his  own  purposes;  but  a  look  into 


3/8  Riallaro 

the  future  had  shown  him  how  absurd  was  the  ideal 
the  Broolyiaus  pretended  to  hold  up  to  themselves,  how 
impossible  it  would  be  by  any  homoeopathic  means, 
such  as  they  proposed,  to  cure  humanity  of  its  ever- 
lasting feuds.  He  fell  into  despair  and  let  the  new 
king  do  as  he  would  ;  and  now  in  his  solitude  and 
meditation  the  love  of  his  older  past  had  come  back  on 
him,  and  he  longed  to  see  his  native  land,  his  para- 
dise, again. 

He  had  asked  to  be  exiled  to  the  garrison  that 
watched  Kayoss,  in  order  that  the  sight  of  that 
wretched  community  might  keep  his  ambitions  down. 
There  on  the  island  opposite  (and  he  pointed  across 
the  strait)  lived  the  anarchic  exiles  from  the  islands  of 
the  archipelago.  As  he  uttered  the  word  "live"  he 
smiled  wearily.  They  lived  but  a  few  days  after  they 
were  landed,  for  they  came  to  violent  feud,  and  strife 
and  bloodshed  ended  the  tragedy  of  trying  to  exist 
without  government  before  the  animal  was  dead  in 
man.  He  raised  his  eyes  suddenl)^  and  he  pointed  to 
the  opposite  shore.  On  it  moved  a  human  being. 
That  was  the  survivor  of  the  last  shipment  to  Kayoss. 
The  garrison  had  never  had  any  trouble.  Within 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  anarchists  were  out  of  their 
fetters  and  free  on  shore  they  had  found  weapons 
against  one  another.  They  divided  up  into  conspira- 
cies and  fought,  and  before  many  days  were  over,  two 
or  three  remained  too  maimed  and  wounded  to  fight. 
When  they  recovered,  they  fought  for  the  mastery, 
and  one  remained  sorely  stricken,  often  to  die,  some- 
times to  recover  only  to  become  a  maniac.  Such  was 
the  state  of  the  wretch  whom  we  now  saw  gesticulat- 
ing on  the  beach.  There  never  could  be  anarchism 
on  this  earth    till    the  wild    beast   had  died  out  of 


Noola  379 

the  human  breast,  and  man  was  ready  for  flight  to 
purer  spheres.  It  was  but  poison  in  the  existing  state 
of  mankind.  A  Httle  of  it  did  not  do  much  harm.  Its 
best  cure  was  to  give  it  full  scope,  for  it  soon  killed  off 
all  existences  within  its  reach  and  itself  with  them. 

As  he  rose  to  this  climax,  his  transparent  face  began 
to  cloud  and  grow  turbid.  There  was  not  that  clear- 
ness of  depth  in  the  eyes  which  had  so  drawn  me  to 
him.  His  nature  seemed  to  become  shallow  and  tem- 
pestuous, more  like  the  men  of  Broolyi  and  those  I  had 
known  in  the  old  western  world.  But  it  was  not  for 
long  ;  he  drew  himself  up  with  a  sharp  gesture  of 
self-scorn,  and  then  there  settled  upon  him  a  silence 
and  a  melancholy  that  resisted  my  efforts  to  overcome. 
He  grew  quite  unconscious  of  what  I  said,  and,  walk- 
ing back  towards  his  hut,  left  me.  It  was  useless  to 
attempt  intercourse  with  such  self-in wrapt  thoughts. 

For  days  I  saw  how  purposeless  would  be  all  speech  ; 
his  figure  was  bowed,  his  face  was  bent  with  grief,  his 
eyes  were  fixed  on  the  earth.  I  had  never  witnessed 
such  tearless  sorrow  in  human  form.  I  persevered  in 
my  silent  reverence  for  him,  and  at  last  the  cloud 
lifted.  He  stood  erect  one  day  in  the  sunshine,  and 
on  my  approach,  he  smiled  answer  to  my  greeting.  All 
the  dark  and  troubled  appearance  of  his  face  had  van- 
ished, and  his  eyes  and  his  complexion  seemed  to 
show  the  depths  of  his  nature  again  with  perfect  lim- 
pidity. I  was  soon  in  sympathetic  converse  with  him. 
There  still  rang  through  his  utterances  a  note  of  sad- 
ness and  regret.  It  reminded  me  of  the  undertones  of 
so  many  folk-songs  that  wail  with  the  reminiscence  of 
lost  ideals.  How  wearily  it  sounded,  as  it  echoed 
through  the  depths  of  his  meaning  !  It  was  as  if  his 
words  fell  from  the  stars  quivering  with  the  emotion 


380  Riallaro 

and  thought  of  the  spheres  in  their  everlasting  rhythm. 
Out  of  infinity  into  infinity  their  wisdom  seemed  to 
pass.    There  was  no  limit  to  their  depth  of  suggestion. 

From  his  words  there  gradually  developed  the  story 
of  his  life,  with  reservations  that  I  could  by  no  ques- 
tioning or  interest  penetrate. 

"  Many  leaden-footed  years  ago, — brief  in  the  tale  of 
my  own  life,  long  and  slow  taken  b}'  themselves, —  I 
drifted  on  to  the  eastern  shores  of  Broolyi,  and  fell  into 
the  hands  of  Nunaresha,  one  of  the  most  powerful  and 
ambitious  nobles  in  the  country,  who  was  then  endeav- 
ouring to  get  the  ruling  monarch  dethroned  and  to 
have  himself  elected  in  his  place.  He  saw  before  manj' 
moons  had  fruited  and  died  that  he  had  in  me  a 
godsend  for  his  designs.  Oh,  the  misery  of  it  !  I 
listened  to  his  flattering  proposals,  and  supplied  him 
with  the  instruments  to  carry  them  out. ' '  The  thought 
overcame  him  ;  the  words  died  away  on  his  lips;  and 
his  consciousness  seemed  to  ebb  into  unknown  depths 
of  sorrow.  I  kept  a  reverent  silence,  and  the  thought 
of  his  broken  story  tided  upwards  again  into  words. 
"  Ah  me!  the  memory  of  my  atavistic  folly  weighs  my 
whole  being  down,  when  it  comes  upon  me.  Out  of 
my  warlike  forefathers  of  hundreds  of  generations  be- 
fore had  come  into  my  nature  some  taint  of  their  mili- 
tary passions  and  ambitions.  For  several  hundreds 
of  years  it  lay  dormant.  The  wise  observers  of  my 
country  had  seen  it  in  me  from  my  birth,  and  had  sur- 
rounded me  with  such  conditions  as  would  keep  it  in 
abeyance,  if  not  deprive  it  of  all  living  force.  Un- 
happily the  profession  of  chemist  and  engineer,  for 
which  I  was  found  on  examination  of  all  my  faculties 
to  be  best  fitted,  opened  up  to  me  a  vista  into  the  de- 
structive forces  that  permeate  the  universe,  and  the 


Noola  381 

marvellous  power  over  them  that  our  own  chemical 
knowledge  gave.  This  and  my  growing  acquaintance 
with  the  myriads  that  inhabit  the  earth  and  with  the 
consequent  scope  for  military  ambition  roused  the 
sleeping  devil  in  me.  I  passed  my  time  in  the  analysis 
of  the  destructive  elements  in  nature,  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  explosives,  and  in  devising  plans  for  their 
concentration  against  an  enemy,  although  it  was  a 
fundamental  maxim  of  our  commonwealth  that  no  mem- 
ber of  it  should  ever  harbour  evil  thought  against  the 
life  of  a  fellow-being.  Innumerable  gentle  and  indirect 
methods  were  applied  for  my  cure;  but  it  was  all  in 
vain.  M}^  ancestral  passion  was  roused  like  an  un- 
quenchable fire.  I  could  see  the  sorrow  over  me  in  the 
faces  of  the  community.  At  last,  without  their  ever 
having  come  to  formal  resolve,  I  was  placed  in  a 
boat  with  my  share  of  the  wealth  of  the  island  in  pre- 
cious metals,  and  blown  far  out  to  sea  in  the  direction 
of  Broolyi. 

' '  Doubtless  by  the  help  of  the  forces  my  countrymen 
have  control  of,  I  drifted  towards  this  island,  and  came 
to  be  received  by  Nunaresha.  He  almost  at  once 
raised  me  to  the  position  of  trusted  adviser.  He  ac- 
cepted ever}^  device  I  invented  for  his  purposes,  and 
supplied  me  with  the  material  I  required.  I  gave  him 
such  power  over  explosives  that  he  felt  himself  almost 
invincible.  He  subdued  his  quarrelsome  baronial 
neighbours  with  the  greatest  ease,  and  by  the  help 
of  his  explosive  catapults  made  his  friends  throughout 
the  island  supreme  over  their  districts.  His  influence 
was  soon  predominant,  and  the  feeble  intriguing 
monarch  was  deposed  and  Nunaresha  chosen  in  his 
stead.  He  spared  neither  friend  nor  foe  in  order  to 
attain  to  unquestioned  despotism.    The  baronial  castles 


382  Riallaro 

were  demolished  by  the  new  force,  and  all  were 
drawn  into  his  court  by  its  attractions  and  its  concen- 
tration of  power.  The  barons  became  the  mere  parasites 
and  flatterers  of  the  new  king. 

"  Yet  did  he  feel  unhappy  in  that  the  ecclesiasts 
could  still  wage  secret  war  against  him  in  the  hearts  of 
the  women  and  thus  in  every  household.  At  an}'  mo- 
ment the  rebellion  might  break  out,  and,  though  he 
could  crush  it,  once  it  became  open,  he  never  felt  safe 
from  the  weapon  of  the  assassin  or  fanatic.  I,  the 
still-degenerate  Noola,  came  to  his  aid,  when  he 
pleaded  with  me  ;  and  I  manufactured  the  spiritual 
mechanism  of  the  country  for  him  to  control  as  he 
pleased.  He  banished  the  priests  and  substituted  an 
automatic  priesthood  and  service  such  as  might  be 
completely  at  his  beck.  It  was  an  easy  matter  for  me 
to  invent  the  various  machines,  musical,  ceremonial, 
marionettic,  and  locutory.  I  saw  that  some  such  spir- 
itual control  over  men  was  needed,  if  universal  peace 
were  to  be  attained  on  the  earth.  I  still  believed  that 
peace  was  the  true  aim  of  human  civilisation,  and 
that  this  could  be  reached  only  by  such  warlike  forces 
and  such  spiritual  authority  in  the  hands  of  a  single 
governor  or  council  of  governors  as  would  make  rebel- 
lion seem  an  impossibility  and  a  farce  to  every  reason- 
ing mind. 

"  I  have  been  utterly  disabused  of  all  such  thoughts. 
Such  peace  can  mean  nothing  but  universal  stagnancy 
of  mankind.  There  is  no  advance,  no  life  without 
struggle  and  competition.  I  could  have  invented  after 
years  of  work  such  a  weapon  of  war  as  would  have 
enabled  a  man  to  master  the  world  and  keep  it  cower- 
ing in  fear.  I  could  have  extended  my  mechanical  re- 
ligion so  as  to  control  the  thoughts  and  beliefs  of  all 


Noola  383 

men.  But  what  was  the  advantage,  if  the  ruler  grew 
worse  ?  It  was  only  to  connect  all  the  spiritual  fount- 
ains of  the  earth  with  this  tainted  source,  and  thus  to 
keep  them  for  ever  impure.  I  saw  his  unbounded 
power  gradually  sap  the  will  and  the  morality  of  the 
monarch.  He  sank  into  dissipation  and  debauchery. 
He  made  the  whole  of  Broolyian  art  and  religion  and 
morality  coarse  and  vulgar.  The  women  grew  more 
pampered  and  fat  and  licentious  ;  the  men  became 
hypocrites  and  laggards.  In  the  court  there  was  no- 
thing but  display,  vulgar  accretions  of  gaudy  uniforms 
and  of  jewels  of  all  kinds.  In  the  countr}^  there  was 
increasing  degradation  and  misery.  It  was  patent  to 
the  eyes  of  those  who  were  not  blinded  by  the  posses- 
sion of  power  or  the  shadow  of  power.  The  only  thing 
that  saved  the  nation  from  collapse  was  its  frequent 
war  expeditions.  They  hated  the  water  passage  to 
other  islands,  but  they  delighted  in  the  excitement  of 
conflict,  and  they  came  back  fewer  in  numbers,  slim- 
mer in  figure,  and  more  active  in  habit.  You  might 
have  expected  the  women  to  preponderate  in  the  popu- 
lation, because  of  the  war  drain  on  the  men.  But  per- 
haps you  have  noticed  that  amongst  the  children  and 
youth,  it  is  our  own  sex  that  has  the  best  of  it  in  num- 
bers ;  whilst  fat  old  women  are  seen  everywhere,  old 
men  are  seldom  seen.  A  warlike  communitj'  ever  re- 
cuperates bj'  means  of  the  physiological  fact  that, 
where  only  young  and  vigorous  soldiers  are  the  fathers 
competing  for  the  love  of  the  ^-oung  women,  who  are 
few  and  somewhat  pampered,  there  is  a  predominance 
of  male  births.  It  is  this  prevention  of  old  age  amongst 
men  by  the  sharp  sickle  of  war  along  with  the  seclu- 
sion and  delicacy  of  the  women  that  keeps  the  commun- 
ity from  complete  effeminacy  and  ultimate  extinction. 


384  Riallaro 

Broolyi  is  the  exile  asylum  of  all  the  passion  for  mili- 
tarism in  the  archipelago,  and  the  internecine  wars  of 
the  exiles  reduce  their  numbers  and  yet  keep  them 
active  ;  their  hatred  of  the  sea  saves  the  other  islands 
from  conquest  by  them.  Their  great  heroic  age  was 
the  reign  of  a  woman  who  had  been  expelled  from  my 
own  land  for  her  warlike  passions.  She  overcame 
their  nausea  for  oceanic  expeditions  by  training  most 
of  the  boys  like  a  coast  population  to  take  delight  in 
boats  and  ships,  and  it  was  only  the  jealousy  of  the 
other  women  that  prevented  Broolyi  from  mastering 
the  whole  of  the  archipelago.  She  ever  fostered  her 
desire  of  revenge  on  her  original  country,  and  at  last 
led  an  army  of  vengeance  against  it  ;  but  she  was 
again  and  again  repulsed  with  ease.  In  the  disfavour 
of  defeat  the  Broolyian  women  accused  her  of  witch- 
craft in  drawing  away  the  affections  of  the  young  men 
from  them,  and  had  her  put  to  death.  Degenerate 
though  I  have  grown,  I  never  nurtured  one  thought 
of  retaliation  for  my  exile  ;  and  even  had  I,  I  should 
never  have  been  so  foolish  as  to  imagine  that  I  could 
have  carried  it  out.  She  must  have  been  mad  or  drunk 
wnth  passion  to  attempt  such  a  thing.  When  she 
died  Broolyi  sank  back  into  the  even  tenor  of  quarrel 
and  civil  war.  Alas,  that  I  should  have  been  the 
means  of  stirring  it  again  to  warlike  ambition  for  mas- 
tery! It  was  ni}'  mistaken  ideal  of  universal  peace  by 
means  of  universal  and  omnipotent  authorit}'.  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  all  government  is  but  giv- 
ing the  monopoly  of  opportunity  to  one  set  of  robbers 
in  order  to  save  the  nation  from  the  ravages  of  most 
others.  It  is  worse  for  the  higher  natures  of  the  gov- 
erning than  for  those  of  the  governed  ;  and  I  have 
recanted  my  heresies. 


Noola  385 

"  How  weary  I  grew  of  the  pomp  and  show  of  the 
court,  of  the  dreary  round  of  war  and  dissipation  !  I 
would  have  given  the  world  for  exile  into  solitude  ; 
and  yet  I  dared  not  secede  from  the  monarch  and  his 
following.  I  had  shown  myself  too  resourceful  to  be 
allowed  to  go  free  in  the  island.  The  king  never  would 
have  believed  that  I  was  at  rest  and  only  desirous  of 
rest. 

"  But  the  inevitable  conclusion  came.  Lapped  in 
the  luxurious  security  of  unquestioned  power,  he  grew 
careless  ;  thinking  that  every  mind  in  the  island  was 
tuned  to  his  key,  hatred  to  him  had  grown  silently  in 
the  hearts  of  many.  At  the  most  unexpected  place 
and  moment  it  blazed  out,  and  he  fell  by  the  hand  of 
an  assassin.  He  had  meant  to  establish  a  dynasty, 
but  his  children  all  fell  with  him  ;  and  the  nobility 
elected  his  successor  from  amongst  themselves,  one  of 
the  mildest  and  most  characterless.  I  saw  that  this 
was  my  opportunity,  and  I  pleaded  with  him  that  I 
might  be  sent  into  exile  and  solitude;  and,  in  order  to 
make  him  feel  sure  that  I  could  not  be  plotting  against 
him,  I  asked  that  I  should  be  near  the  garrison  that 
watches  the  island  of  anarchists.  Here  I  have  rested 
these  many  5'ears,  working  out  my  spiritual  purification 
in  sorrow  and  regret.  I  have  climbed  higher  in  soul 
than  I  had  ever  thought  to  reach;  and  yet  clouds  of 
anger  at  times  float  across  my  nature  and  mar  mj' 
power  of  vision.  I  am  not  worthy  to  return  to  my 
own  land.  Ah,  that  I  were  !  And  what  hope  is  there 
of  any  such  return  for  me,  the  outcast,  the  degen- 
erate ? " 

He  fell  again  into  self-inwrapt  reverie.  His  thoughts 
had  gone  back  to  that  land  of  mystery-  whence  he  had 
come,  and  vain  was  it  for  me  to  attempt   to   follow 


386  Riallaro 

them.  I  must  wait.  And  I  thought  I  saw  my  way  to 
bring  about  my  purpose. 

One  day  we  had  again  grown  intimate  in  our  con- 
versation, and  he  had  become  familiar  enough  to  ask 
me  whence  I  came.  I  told  him  how  I  had  crossed  the 
circle  of  fog  with  my  yacht,  and  he  asked  me  how  I 
had  resisted  the  magnetic  forces  and  sea  currents  that 
so  effectually  fence  in  this  sub-tropical  archipelago.  I 
described  the  Daydreatti.  At  first  he  could  not  realise 
that  she  could  move  swiftly  without  the  help  of  wind 
or  current  or  oar  ;  but,  when  the  thought  of  steam 
power  propelling  her  came  on  his  mind,  it  took  full 
possession  of  it.  He  made  sure  that  I  could  force  her 
right  in  the  teeth  of  a  storm,  and  then  his  face  was 
illumined  with  joy  and  hope. 

The  next  day  he  was  all  eagerness  to  know  the  con- 
struction of  her  engines  and  her  mode  of  propulsion  ; 
and,  having  satisfied  himself  that  she  had  ten  times 
the  power  of  the  largest  falla  driven  by  oars,  he  sur- 
rendered his  inner  thoughts  to  me.  He  now  saw  a 
way  by  which  he  might  return  to  his  dear  native  land, 
and  he  described  to  me  the  singular  means  his  country- 
men employed  for  hedging  off  intrusion  and  expelling 
members  of  their  community  that  are  alien  to  its  main 
purpose.  Round  the  shoulders  of  their  central  peak, 
Lilaroma,  runs,  on  an  enormous  scaffolding,  what  they 
call  the  storm-cone  ;  it  is  a  huge  trumpet-shaped  in- 
strument with  its  wide  end  turned  on  the  horizon,  and 
out  of  it  is  blown  from  the  centre  of  force  in  the  island 
a  blast  that,  when  concentrated  on  any  point,  has  the 
power  of  a  tornado  ;  nothing  propelled  by  oirs  or  sails 
has  hitherto  been  able  to  resist  the  artificial  hurricane. 
By  night  it  moves  slowly  around  the  horizon,  and,  if 
its  blast  encounters  any  object  floating  on  the  surface  of 


Noola  387 

the  ocean,  however  small,  it  brings  all  its  force  to  bear 
on  it  till  the  resistant  material  flees  before  it.  It  pro- 
duces a  local  tempest,  and  the  intruder  either  sinks  or 
escapes  before  the  blast.  There  is  no  record  in  the 
archipelago  of  any  falla  or  human  being  having  ever 
reached  the  shore  of  Limanora  by  sea  ;  and  though 
the  long  tradition  of  this  tornado  barrier-to-all  has 
ended  in  a  more  complete,  because  a  spiritual,  barrier, 
that  of  superstitious  fear,  the  storm-cone  never  ceases 
its  vigilant  blast. 

I  saw  the  source  of  his  hope  and  told  him  of  our 
encounter  with  the  storm-cone  and  the  result,  fearing 
that  he  did  not  understand  all  the  conditions;  but,  after 
ascertaining  that  we  had  sail  set,  and  that  the  tornado 
caught  us  broadside,  his  face  bore  a  smile  that  implied 
complete  mastery  of  the  problem.  He  showed  me  that, 
if  the  sails  had  been  down  and  the  bow  had  been 
pointed  right  to  the  storm-cone,  the  ship  could  have 
easily  held  her  own  against  the  blast  ;  but,  that  we 
might  not  be  too  sure  of  the  result  and  might  not  intro- 
duce a  whole  shipload  of  intruders  into  the  island,  he 
would  invent  a  method  by  which  we  two  alone  should 
reach  its  shore.  It  was  this.  He  intended  to  make 
two  wooden,  water-tight  shells  in  the  shape  of  a  fish 
with  sharp  snout  and  directing  tail  ;  into  these,  as  we 
got  close  to  a  shelving  beach,  we  two  would  enter. 
The  lids  would  be  sealed  so  as  to  let  no  water  in  ;  and 
then  the  sailors  of  the  Daydream  would  shoot  them 
from  two  huge  catapults  of  his,  so  that  they  would 
plunge  into  the  sea,  and  speeding  through  the  water, 
would  rise  to  the  surface,  and  float  into  the  shallows 
close  to  the  sand. 

I  could  see  the  feasibility  of  the  plan,  and  entered 
gladly  into   it,   for  at  last   I   perceived   a  chance  of 


S^S  Riallaro 

reaching  his  m3'sterious  fatherland.  As  he  had  agreed 
to  take  me  for  his  comrade,  he  began  to  teach  me  his 
native  language.  He  told  me  he  could  not  give  me 
more  than  the  rudiments  and  framework.  The  niceties 
of  it  and  the  great  vocabulary  come  only  in  long  years 
of  familiarity.  It  was  constructed  on  the  principle  of 
assigning  the  easiest  words  to  the  commonest  and 
easiest  things  and  ideas.  It  grew^  in  difficulty  and  per- 
plexity in  the  higher  spheres  of  thought  and  investiga- 
tion. The  names  for  the  familiar  objects  and  needs  of 
human  beings  were  monosyllabic,  and  each  expressed 
some  essential  or  striking  quality  or  feature  of  the 
thing  either  by  means  of  the  nature  of  the  sound  or  by 
resemblance  to  some  other  but  abstract  word.  The 
verb,  or  as  he  called  it,  the  energy-word,  and  the 
adjective  or  quality-word,  were  generally  dissyllabic, 
the  former  by  means  of  the  affixing,  the  other  bj- 
means  of  the  prefixing,  of  one  of  many  different  sounds 
or  letters.  Half  of  each  of  these  sets  of  extension 
elements  were  vowels,  the  other  half  consonants. 
They  were  phonetic  alternatives  ;  the  consonantal  was 
meant  as  neighbour  to  a  vowel  sound,  and  the  vowel 
as  neighbour  to  a  consonantal.  For  example:  "  kar  " 
meant  "  dust  "  ;  "  karo  "  meant  "  to  reduce  to  dust  "  ; 
"okar,"  "having  the  essential  qualities  of  dust." 
"  Tri  "  meant  "  sea- water  "  ;  "trim,"  "to.  use  sea- 
water";  "  atri,"  "salt  and  liquid  like  sea-water"; 
"  trik,"  "  to  plunge  intosea-water  "  ;  "  itri,"  "  dipped 
in  sea-water."  There  was  no  difference  in  form  between 
the  adjective  and  the  adverb,  and  there  were  only  two 
kinds  of  relational  words  or  words  that  showed  the  con- 
nection between  ideas  or  things  or  energies  or  qualities 
that  we  brought  into  relation.  Our  prepositions  and 
conjunctions  w^ould  be  included  under  the  one  type  ;  the 


Noola  389 

same  particle  or  kin-word  might  be  used  to  express  the 
affinit}^  between  two  of  the  simplest  words  for  concrete 
objects  and  two  such  complex  ideas  as  are  given  in 
sentences.  The  other  kind  of  relational  word  was 
what  they  called  their  pointer  and  seemed  to  stand  for 
our  pronoun.  It  pointed  out  some  object  or  idea 
already  mentioned  or  to  be  mentioned,  in  order  to 
show  its  relation  to  other  objects  or  ideas,  or  pointed 
out  the  relation  of  the  energy-word  or  of  the  quality  or 
of  the  object  to  some  personality.  These  kin- words  or 
pointers  consisted  each  of  two  letters  ;  there  were 
some  hundreds  of  them,  and  their  number  was  ever 
growing  as  new  relationships  grew  out  of  a  more  com- 
plex civilisation  or  out  of  advancing  inve.stigation  and 
discovery.  There  were  no  separate  words  of  one  let- 
ter, all  the  letters  being  monopolised  by  the  prefixes 
or  afiixes. 

The  subtones  or  slight  variations  of  the  common 
sounds  were  utilised  to  express  various  shades  of  mean- 
ing; as  for  example,  time  was  expressed  in  the  verb  by 
a  modification  of  the  sound  of  the  affix,  whether  con- 
sonantal or  vocalic.  "  Lo  karo  ti  rak  "  meant  "  I  re- 
duce this  rock  to  dust  " ;  "  L,o  karo  ti  rak,"  "  I  shall 
reduce  this  rock  to  dust  "  ;  "  Lo  karoo  ti  rak,"  "  I  re- 
duced this  rock  to  dust."  Accent  on  the  affix  was 
used  to  express  stage  of  action,  beginning,  in  process, 
or  complete  ;  or  rather  lack  of  accent  expressed  the 
second,  sharp  accent  the  first,  and  full  accent  the  last. 
Pitch  was  employed  to  express  attitude  of  mind  to  the 
action  ;  the  higher  tones  giving  various  shades  of 
determination  or  order,  the  lower,  various  kinds  of 
uncertainty  or  question,  and  the  full,  ordinary  tones 
expressing  the  different  phases  of  assertion  or  surety. 

Transferred  or  metaphorical  meaning  was  indicated 


390  Riallaro 

by  the  use  of  a  variation  in  the  vowel  sound  of  the 
noun.  "  Kar  "  with  long,  broad  vowel  is  "dust"; 
"  K^r  "  with  short  vowel  implies  the  sporadic  ideas 
that  float  in  a  civilisation  or  community  or  period  or 
mind;  and  all  the  various  grammatical  and  sense  modi- 
fications of  the  original  concrete  noun  were  applicable 
to  the  new  noun  with  the  transferred  sense. 

The  grammatical  framework  of  the  language  was  so 
simple  that  I  mastered  it  in  a  few  da3'S.  A  few  more 
days  vSufficed  to  get  familiar  with  what  they  called  the 
infant's  vocabulary,  all  the  concrete  words  for  common 
things,  like  earth,  rock,  sea,  sky,  food,  arm,  hand, 
head,  light,  fire,  smoke,  cloud.  What  made  this  easier 
was  that  words  for  things  that  had  a  close  resemblance 
or  connection  in  action  had  the  same  consonantal  sound 
but  different  vowels,  or  the  same  vowel  and  one  con- 
sonantal variation  ;  "  foresight  "  was  "  lum  "  ;  "  fore- 
energy  "  was  "  lim  " ;  "rum"  was  "gravitation," 
"  rim,"  "  force  " ;  "  lul,"  "  smoke,"  "  HI,"  "  cloud." 
When  I  passed  to  the  youth's  vocabulary  of  less  con- 
crete words  or  words  with  metaphorical  applications,  it 
was  more  difficult,  partly  because  the  vocabular}^  was 
larger,  partly  because  the  differences  were  subtler;  but 
I  was  greatlj'  aided  b}^  the  universal  and  primary  law 
of  their  tongue,  that  the  same  sound  should  not  stand 
for  more  than  one  meaning  or  shade  of  meaning  ; 
whenever  a  word  tended  to  acquire  a  new  sense,  a  new 
modification  of  the  form  was  deliberately  invented  and 
adopted.  Thus  there  were  none  of  the  ambiguities 
and  shifting  senses  that  make  all  other  languages  and 
especially  the  European  like  a  quagmire  or  quicksand. 
One  of  the  more  important  annual  functions  of  the 
community  as  a  whole  was  language  sanitation. 

It  is  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes  of  European  civil- 


Noola  391 

isation  to  let  words  take  their  own  course,  the  most 
dangerous  source  of  spiritual  epidemics.  In  them  lurk 
foul  thoughts  and  suggestions  that  spread  their  moral 
contagion  as  soon  as  the  child  comes  into  contact  with 
their  inner  meanings.  Nothing  is  so  pernicious,  so 
obstructive  of  progress,  as  the  virus  of  uncleansed 
words.  They  let  out  on  new  ages  moral  diseases  that 
have  been  forgotten.  In  them  contagious  germs  adhere 
to  the  nooks  and  corners  for  generations  as  in  old 
houses.  Even  the  fallacies  that  cling  to  the  human 
mind  from  the  many  and  shifting  senses  of  words  are 
bad  enough,  but  worse  is  the  opportunity  they  give  for 
villains  to  palter  with  them.  Nothing  is  easier  than  in 
our  old  civilisations  to  betray  the  innocent  ;  language 
with  its  chameleon  nature  can  fit  itself  to  every  atmo- 
sphere and  light  ;  it  gives  the  readiest  shelter  to  dis- 
honesty and  error.  Unpurified,  undefined,  it  is  the 
quaking  bog  in  which  half  the  souls  that  are  born  into 
the  world  are  irrecoverably  lost. 

Ages  ago  his  countrymen  had  taken  their  language 
in  hand,  and  swept  out  of  it  all  foul  suggestion.  Now 
their  chief  task  was  to  prevent  ambiguities  and  double 
or  shifting  meanings  from  creeping  into  words  and 
making  them  the  cloaks  of  dishonest  purj5ose,  the 
stumbling-blocks  of  the  still  feeble  human  soul.  There 
were  linguistic  specialists  whose  duties  were  to  watch 
the  use  of  words  by  the  communit}^  and  note  down 
those  that  were  changing  their  signification.  They 
had  also  to  invent  new  words  to  fit  the  new  meanings, 
and  to  lay  the  results  of  their  investigations  before  the 
meeting  of  the  whole  nation.  Whatever  were  unani- 
mously adopted  became  at  once  a  part  of  the  language  ; 
and  for  those  that  were  rejected  the  experts  had  to 
bring  forward  other  suggestions. 


392  Riallaro 

The  result  was  that  their  language  was  as  limpid  as 
their  own  thoughts  ;  and  it  was  kept  musical  too. 
After  the  linguists  had  made  out  lists  of  suggested 
substitutes,  they  submitted  them  to  the  imaginative 
men  and  the  musicians  ;  through  this  ordeal,  and  that 
of  the  meeting  of  the  people,  none  but  noble  words 
could  pass  ;  and  for  words  that  had  to  cover  new  ideas 
in  some  department  of  science  or  art  the  linguists  had 
to  consult  with  the  scientists  or  artists.  This  people 
thought  no  trouble  lost  that  was  spent  on  ennobling 
the  garment  of  thought  and  the  master-element  of 
music  and  imaginative  work.  "  All  is  false,  if  words 
are  uncertain,"  "  Language  is  the  ether  of  thought  ; 
it  interpenetrates  all  existence,"  were  two  of  their 
favourite  maxims.  Another  that  was  often  on  the  lips 
of  Noola  was  :  "  Take  care  of  the  words,  and  the 
thoughts  will  take  care  of  themselves. " 

It  was  little  wonder  then  that  I  found  it  easy  to 
master  the  primarj^  stages  of  this  most  translucent 
language.  The  stage  of  full  manhood  and  the  stage  of 
the  wise,  I  could  see  from  a  few  illustrations  he  gave 
me,  had  difficulties  and  subtleties  that  could  be  mastered 
only  by  long  acquaintance  ;  and  it  was  not  till  I  had 
been  many  years  in  Limauora  that  I  came  to  under- 
stand them;  for,  though  the  vocabularies  were  con- 
structed on  the  most  symmetrical  and  clear  plan,  they 
had  as  many  words  as  all  the  languages  of  Europe  put 
together.  Most  of  them  stood  for  ideas  or  elements 
that  were  beyond  European  thought  or  discovery,  or 
for  ideas  that  were,  many  of  them,  fagoted  together 
under  a  single  word  in  our  Western  languages.  No 
idea,  no  shade  of  an  idea  was  without  its  own  word. 
Half  the  false  starts  of  European  civilisation  or  science 
or  philosophy  were  due  to  misunderstandings  caused 


Noola  393 

by  the  number  of  meaniugs  that  attach  to  single  words. 
European  controversies  and  discussions  are  intermin- 
able owing  to  this  fertile  source  of  fallacy  and  of  shift- 
ing ground.  I  was  not  surprised  at  the  small  progress 
made  by  both  old  and  modern  civnlisations  after  I  saw 
the  trouble  the  Limanorans  took  to  purify  and  define 
their  words,  and  the  ease  with  which  one  could  master 
the  most  difficult  thought  expressed  in  their  limpid 
language.  As  I  tell  j'ou  my  story  now  in  your  own 
and  my  native  tongue,  I  feel  as  if  I  wandered  in  a 
dream  through  a  land  of  mists  that  are  ever  shifting 
and  deceiving.  I  have  often  to  abandon  the  attempt 
to  explain  to  you  the  noblest  of  the  Limanoran  ideas. 
At  other  times  I  have  to  translate  clear  expressions 
into  muddy,  uncertain  words,  or  to  resort  to  makeshifts 
that,  I  fear,  give  you  but  little  notion  of  the  originals. 
As  I  talk  with  you  in  your  English  tongue,  I  seem 
to  be  moving  amid  illusions  and  phantoms.  How 
unmelodious  it  all  sounds  !  A  language  like  the 
Limanoran  needed  no  poets  ;  it  was  poetry  itself,  so 
musical  was  every  word  and  every  combination  of 
words,  so  bright  and  strong,  so  suggestive  and  har- 
monious every  idea  that  needed  expression  in  it. 
When  an  Englishman  is  able  to  choose  the  musical 
words  of  his  language  and  put  them  together  with 
rhythmic  harmony  expressive  of  the  inner  harmony  of 
the  ideas,  he  is  canonised  as  a  linguistic  saint,  a  poet. 
The  Limanorans  were  poets  by  virtue  of  their  lan- 
guage and  their  nature  and  training,  and  it  is  like 
passing  into  the  most  commonplace  of  prose  to  express 
even  their  conunonest  words  and  ideas  in  the  most 
poetical  English. 

Little  though  Xoola  taught  me,  I  was  enamoured  of 
it,  and  could  scarcely  keep  from  crooning  the  words  to 


394  Riallaro 

myself,  like  the  lilt  of  an  old  song.  And  every  sen- 
tence seemed  to  be  as  melodious  as  the  separate  words. 
I  tried  to  form  discordant  combinations,  but,  on  pre- 
senting them  to  my  tutor,  I  found  that  they  bore  no 
sense  ;  they  were  impossible  combinations  of  ideas. 
Especially  was  the  harmony  of  sound  predominant  in 
the  higher  stages  of  the  language.  The  commonest 
description  of  even  the  most  difficult  scientific  investi- 
gation sounded  like  a  noble  blank  verse  poem.  To 
speak  in  English  again,  much  though  it  brings  back 
out  of  my  oldest  past,  is  to  walk  in  fetters. 
,  Before  Noola  was  satisfied  that  I  could  make  myself 
understood  in  Limanoran,  and  just  as  he  had  perfected 
his  plan  for  our  projection  into  the  beach  waters  of  his 
native  land,  we  had  aroused  suspicion  in  the  garrison 
by  our  long  colloquies.  They  watched  our  every 
movement.  Nor  did  I  allay  their  fears  by  my  assur- 
ance that  we  were  about  to  attempt  a  landing  on 
Kayoss  by  sea.  We  were  seized  and  sent  to  the 
capital  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  king  and  his  council. 
Long  debate  and  threatening  civil  war  delayed  the 
decision,  but  I  am  certain  that  the  result  would  have 
been  condemnation  to  death  in  the  end,  for  the 
whole  country  was  honeycombed  with  suspicions  and 
fears  of  plots  ;  and  executions  of  suspects  occurred 
every  day. 

But  the  unexpected  rescued  us.  We  lay  in  our  prison 
cells,  weary,  half  expectant,  half  wishing  more  delay. 
Our  food  was  thrust  in  to  us  day  after  day  through  a 
small  aperture  in  the  iron  doors  of  our  pitiless  stone- 
walled dungeons.  At  first  we  heard  through  the  nar- 
row iron-railed  slit  that  served  as  a  window  the  hurry 
and  bustle  of  the  city,  like  the  sound  of  a  distant  tor- 
rent.    One  day  it  seemed  to  grow  less  and  less,  and  at 


Noola  395 

last  it  ceased.  The  silence  was  oppressive  and  ominous. 
Next  morning  the  wicket  aperture  in  our  door  did  not 
open.  All  day  we  were  without  food.  We  wondered 
what  had  occurred.  Four  days  threw  their  twilight 
into  our  cells,  and  not  a  sound  of  human  voice  ap- 
proached us.  I  felt  my  hunger  pass  from  the  gnawing 
stage  into  languor  and  collapse.  I  sank  on  my  reed 
pallet  unable  longer  to  pace  my  floor.  I  swooned  rather 
than  slept  when  twilight  thickened  into  gloom.  I 
knew  that  a  few  days  at  most  must  end  the  alterna- 
tions of  collapse  and  consciousness.  I  dreamt  that  I 
was  back  in  the  old  fishing  village  in  my  mother's  hut 
on  the  cliff ;  and  her  voice  sounded  sweet  in  my  ears, 
as  she  welcomed  me  home  at  night.  I  thought  that  I 
fell  asleep  in  it  and  that  the  morning  had  come.  I  re- 
membered that  my  comrades  were  to  call  me  and  that 
we  were  to  start  early  on  a  long  fishing  excursion.  I 
moved  uneasil}-,  half  conscious  that  I  ought  to  rise  and 
see  if  the  dawn  had  broken  ;  and  then  it  seemed  to 
me  that  the  hum  of  voices  sounded  in  the  distance. 
"  It  is  my  friends,"  I  said  ;  a  loud  rattle  and  clang, 
I  thought,  must  be  their  volley  of  stones  on  the  roof 
and  windows  to  waken  me.  Then  I  heard  their  Scotch 
accents  beside  me.  I  must  awaken.  With  an  effort  I 
rose  and  jumped  from  my  bed.  The  cold  of  the  prison 
floor  brought  me  to  consciousness.  There  beside  me 
was  my  captain.  Alec  Burns,  with  some  of  his  men.  I 
sank  back  on  my  pallet  in  a  swoon  after  a  sign  of  recog- 
nition. They  applied  restoratives,  and  in  half  an  hour, 
though  faint  and  weak,  I  was  able  to  totter  out  on  the 
arms  of  two  of  my  sailors  into  the  passage  and  thence 
into  the  sunshine.  Under  an  awning  I  lay  panting 
back  into  life,  and  nursing  and  liquid  sustenance  gave 
me  appetite,  and  made  me  strong  enough  to  walk  alone. 


30  Riallaro 

I  asked  Burns  for  an  explanation  of  all  that  had 
occurred.  The  royal  officers  were  about  to  seize  the 
Daydream,  he  discovered,  and  he  was  intending  to  put 
out  to  sea  in  the  night.  He  had  got  up  steam  and  was 
about  to  heave  the  anchors,  but  he  found  that  she 
had  grounded,  as  it  was  low  tide.  As  her  screw 
moved,  the  water  gave  forth  an  unbearable  stench. 
He  stopped  her  and  the  fetid  odour  disappeared.  In 
the  morning  he  looked  out  to  the  city,  and  saw  the 
streets  and  the  ramparts  completely  deserted.  Not  a 
being  moved  anywhere.  All  day  the  same  death-like 
stillness  prevailed.  No  boat  moved  in  the  harbour  ; 
no  soldier  appeared  on  the  battlements  ;  not  a  sound 
of  marching  or  of  military  music  was  heard.  It  might 
have  been  a  city  of  the  dead.  The  following  day 
opened  with  the  same  experience.  They  pulled  on 
shore,  and  the  streets  echoed  empty  to  their  step,  as 
they  walked  up  from  the  beach.  They  knocked  at 
doors,  but  received  no  answer.  They  entered  houses, 
and  passed  through  them  unmolested,  unchallenged. 
At  last  the  explanation  forced  itself  upon  their  senses. 
In  one  house  they  could  not  proceed  for  the  fetor  that 
met  them  at  their  entrance  ;  and  in  the  next  lane 
they  saw  dead  bodies  strewn,  as  if  cast  from  the  win- 
dows, in  some  places  heaped  high  above  the  earth.  It 
was  a  city  of  the  unburied  dead,  and  no  living  creature 
was  to  be  seen  to  bury  them. 

The  next  day,  on  landing  again,  they  encountered 
some  of  the  slaves,  who  were  plundering  the  houses, 
and  who  fled  as  the  sailors  approached.  They  fol- 
lowed one  up,  and  saw  him  enter  the  huge  building, 
which  they  found  to  be  the  prison.  They  saw  him 
take  the  ke5'S  and  open  the  various  cells  ;  and  out 
poured  his  imprisoned  fellows.     They  heard  from  one 


Noola  397 

prisoner  of  1113^  incarceration,  and  then  discovered  my 
dungeon  and  led  me  out  into  the  sunshine. 

As  Burns  came  to  this  point  in  his  narrative,  I  re- 
membered my  fellow-prisoner,  Noola,  and  I  hurried 
them  off  to  look  for  him.  They  returned  with  him 
none  the  worse  for  his  long  fast.  He  did  not  complain 
of  hunger.  He  had,  I  could  see,  a  fund  of  sustenance 
to  draw  upon  unusual  in  the  human  bodies  I  had  been 
accustomed  to.  We  persuaded  him  to  try  some  of  our 
restorers  ;  but  he  took  them  with  none  of  the  eager 
appetite  that  I  had  shown.  It  was  manifest  that  he  had 
a  physical  constitution  altogether  different  from  ours. 

He  asked  us  how  it  was  that  Burns  had  been  allowed 
to  set  us  free.  He  listened  with  equanimity  to  the 
explanation,  but,  when  he  heard  of  the  slaves,  he 
started  in  alarm,  and  bade  us  hurr}^  to  our  ship.  It 
was  not  long  before  we  were  on  board,  and,  as  it  was 
full  tide,  the  Daydream  was  now  able  to  get  from  her 
anchorage  and  make  out  into  the  open  sea. 

When  he  saw  us  safe  out  of  the  harbour,  he  settled 
down  and  told  me  the  meaning  of  his  sudden  fear  and 
advice.  "  These  slaves  inhabit  the  interior  of  the  island 
in  myriads,  and,  under  the  whips  of  their  overseers, 
do  all  the  work  that  this  military  community  needs. 
They  are  so  shamefully  treated  that,  if  ever  the  bonds 
break  and  they  rise  in  rebellion,  they  show  no  mere}'', 
and  make  no  distinction  in  their  fury.  The  opening 
of  the  prison  doors  meant  that  the  slave  population  was 
about  to  revel  in  crime  and  bloodshed.  The}'  will 
crowd  down  uncontrolled  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  fill  the  city  with  a  ravaging,  plundering  mob. 
Had  we  remained  till  they  were  in  force,  we  should 
have  had  no  chance  of  escape  ;  we  should  have  per- 
ished in  the  general  hate  of  all  but  their  own  kin. 


39^  Riallaro 

"  You  ask  me  whj^  so  powerful  and  so  military  a 
people  should  ever  permit  such  an  outbreak.  It  is  be- 
cause they  are  cowed  by  a  greater  fear,  that  of  the 
plague.  You  have  perceived  how  low  the  tide  has 
been,  and  how  hot  the  sun.  The  mud  upon  the  shore 
of  the  harbours,  when  it  is  laid  bare  by  the  waters 
and  exposed  to  an  exceptionally  hot  summer,  breeds  a 
plague  that  sweeps  through  the  ranks  of  the  Broolyians. 
There  is  no  means  known  of  stopping  its  ravages,  no 
cure  for  it.  Once  seized  by  it  no  man  can  last  more 
than  one  day  ;  and  once  dead  the  body  putrefies  and 
spreads  the  contagion  far  and  near.  All  the  citizens 
flee  to  the  heights,  to  be  out  of  reach  of  the  pestilence. 
There  and  there  alone  can  they  have  any  chance  of 
survival,  and  then  only  if  no  one  bears  with  him  the 
seeds  of  the  terrible  disease.  It  is  piteous  to  see  the 
cowardly  stampede  of  these  bold  warriors.  The  sla- 
ves know  the  meaning  of  the  flight ;  it  is  their  car- 
nival ;  they  are  untouched  by  the  plague  ;  they  can 
move  with  impunity  amongst  the  rotting  dead  bodies 
or  the  putrid  mud. 

"  It  is  a  strange  example  of  the  revenge  that  a  law 
of  nature  takes  upon  those  who  outrage  it.  Long  ages 
ago  the  war-loving  exiles,  who  were  landed  upon 
Broolyi,  subdued  its  gentle  inhabitants,  but  so  wore 
them  down  by  driving  them  as  slaves  that  they  almost 
died  out.  Their  place  had  to  be  supplied  ;  for  the 
masters  had  become  accustomed  to  freedom  from 
manual  and  sordid  employments,  and  nothing  could 
persuade  them  to  give  up  their  weapons  and  swagger- 
ing military  employments  and  put  their  hand  to  the 
plough  or  the  hatchet.  They  had  to  send  emis- 
saries out  in  all  directions  to  steal,  borrow,  or  buy 
slaves.     Peaceful  and  often  highly  civilised  islanders 


Noola  399 

were  kidnapped  and  battened  down  in  the  holds  of  the 
fallas  in  order  that  they  might  not  resort  to  mutiny  or 
attempts  at  escape.  In  these  foul  dens  oftentimes  men 
and  women  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the  delicacies 
of  civilisation  were  penned  ;  and  they  suffered  the 
horrors  of  an  unclean,  putrid  dungeon  and  of  a  rough 
sea  passage.  By  the  close  of  the  voyage  half  the  cap- 
tives had  to  be  thrown  overboard  dead  or  next  door  to 
death.  Those  that  survived  were  proof  against  the 
diseases  that  originated  in  such  nests  of  contagion. 
When  the  shipload  had  been  disembarked,  the  filth  of 
the  voyage  was  washed  into  the  harbour,  and  the 
germs  of  a  new  plague  took  up  their  abode  in  the  mud 
at  the  bottom,  dormant  for  long  years,  and  then,  when 
the  favouring  conditions  came,  a  hot  summer  and  a 
series  of  low  tides,  rising  into  the  air  and  filling  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  shore.  It  is  one  of  these  plagues 
that  has  emptied  the  city. 

"The  strange  thing  about  this  Broolyian  fever 
is  that  its  symptoms  and  horrible  effects  are  those  that 
the  slaves  experienced  in  the  loathsome  sea  passage. 
The  fever-smitten  feel  a  sinking  of  the  heart  as  in 
homesickness  ;  this  alternates  with  wild  fury  against 
wrongs  that  are  in  their  case  purely  imaginary.  They 
think  that  they  are  in  darkness  and  filth  and  chains, 
unable  to  escape,  in  utter  despair  of  life.  They  cher- 
ish a  madness  for  liberty,  which  w^ears  out  their  bodies 
and  brings  such  exhaustion  that  they  sink  rapidl}'. 
Their  faces  and  bodies  grow  red  as  with  rage,  then 
pale  as  with  sea-sickness,  then  yellow  with  loathing. 
They  come  to  nauseate  living,  and  would  gladly  put 
an  end  to  their  tortures  by  suicide  ;  yet  their  hearts 
again  beat  wildly  as  if  clutching  at  life.  Before 
the  passion  has  collapsed  and  their  energy  has  sunk, 


400  Riallaro 

they  become  putrid  in  their  limbs,  till  thej-  shudder  at 
the  sight  of  their  hands  and  feet.  The  microscopic 
life,  that  sprang  into  being  in  the  holds  of  the  slaving 
fallas,  and  that  festers  in  the  mud  of  the  fore-shores, hav- 
ing drawn  all  the  sufferings  and  feelings  of  the  captives 
into  it,  communicates  them  to  the  people  that  wronged 
them.  The  survivors  of  the  enslaved  and  their  de- 
scendants are  for  ever  inoculated  against  it.  At 
every  outbreak  of  the  epidemic  the  slaves  escape  and 
hold  high  festival  in  the  city,  all  the  fiercer  and  more 
degraded  in  their  orgies  from  the  state  in  which  they 
and  their  ancestry  have  been  kept.  In  their  drunken 
carousals  they  come  to  blows,  though  many  escape 
back  to  their  native  land.  When  the  summer  has 
passed,  some  of  the  soldiers  venture  into  the  suburbs, 
and  with  threatening  missiles  force  those  that  have 
remained  alive  to  bury  the  dead,  and  to  cleanse  the 
city  and  prepare  it  for  their  masters.  All  settles  back 
into  its  old  state.  New  slave  raids  are  organised  to 
fill  the  places  of  those  that  have  vanished  ;  new  hor- 
rors take  place,  and  new  germs  are  deposited  in  the 
mud." 

There  was  the  light  of  pity  in  the  eyes  of  the  nar- 
rator. I  could  hear  his  voice  quiver  and  sound  plaint- 
ive, although  he  gave  but  the  barest  outline  of  the 
historj'.  He  was  filled  with  the  \nsion,  I  thought,  of 
the  vanit}'  of  human  life  and  its  pursuits.  I  could 
see  from  some  words  that  fell  from  him  soon  after  that 
memory  had  brought  up  to  him  the  dire  chimeras  that 
had  led  him  from  his  native  paradise;  he  saw  the  boot- 
lessness  of  war,  and  the  awful  vengeance  it  works  out 
upon  the  combatants;  he  realised  the  monstrous  nature 
of  tyranny  and  its  recoil  upon  the  tyrants;  he  felt  how 
illusory,  how  mocking  was  the  human  ideal  of  lux- 


Noola  401 

*urious  ease.  The  faults  that  had  banished  him  from 
lyimanora  had  been  burned  out  of  him  by  caustic  expe- 
rience ;  his  nature  had  grown  purified  by  that  long 
solitude  which  had  brought  wisdom  again.  He  hoped 
the  evil  in  him  had  been  long  subdued  ;  but  would  his 
native  land  take  him  back  ?  He  despaired  ;  he  knew 
of  no  precedent  ;  all  who  had  been  exiled  had  finally 
vanished.  He  hoped,  for  he  felt  how  drastic  his  puri- 
fication had  been,  how  bitter  his  repentance.  Yet 
the  rapid  advance  of  their  thought  and  civilisation 
threw  him  back  again  into  fear  ;  he  felt  like  a  man  put 
on  shore  at  the  head  of  a  rapid  and  having  to  find  his 
way  on  land  and  through  jungle  after  the  boat,  as  he 
saw  it  speed  down  the  torrent. 

I  tried  to  draw  him  from  the  harassing  turmoil  of 
his  emotions  and  thoughts  by  questions  on  the  mean- 
ing of  phrases  that  he  had  used  to  me.  He  had  often 
spoken  of  the  practice  of  banishment  for  moral  or  con- 
stitutional weaknesses.  Would  he  explain  to  me  its 
character  and  extent  ?  I  showed  great  anxiety  to 
know  how  it  worked. 

After  a  time  my  eager  interrogations  drew  him  from 
the  painful  inner  conflict,  and,  with  one  of  his  compre- 
hensive and  benignant  smiles,  that  seemed  to  light  up 
his  whole  being,  he  began  :  "  It  is  a  matter  of  very 
ancient  history.  It  is  indeed  thousands,  I  might  almost 
say,  tens  of  thousands  of  years  since  it  was  first  adopted  ; 
for  it  was  a  deliberate  adoption  on  the  part  of  our  an- 
cestors in  Limanora.  Long  generations  before,  the 
idea  of  progress  had  fixed  itself  into  our  civilisation  as 
its  true  aim.  How  to  make  the  human  system,  both 
spiritual  and  physical,  advance  rapidly  was  the  problem 
discussed  year  after  year,  age  after  age  by  our  wisest 

men  and  women.     All  others  were  counted  trivial  or 
26 


402  Riallaro 

auxiliary.  It  seemed  mere  folly  to  look  after  the  pro- 
gress of  our  domestic  animals  with  so  much  care  and 
science  as  we  did,  and  leave  the  human  species  to  the 
assistance  of  accident.  Our  diseased  kine  and  horses 
and  fowls  had  to  die  off  without  transmission  of  their 
weakness  to  posterity.  Only  the  finest  breeds  were 
paired  or  allowed  to  hand  on  their  frames  and  powers. 
Every  care  was  spent  on  the  study  of  their  anatomy 
and  on  the  development  of  their  best  and  most  useful 
qualities.  Whatsoever  the  Limanorans  desired  to  do 
with  these  animals  they  did.  If  any  feature  of  their 
bodies  or  natures  or  characters  seemed  worthy  of  de- 
velopment, it  was  soon  developed,  and  a  new  species 
was  established.  What  gross  disloyalty  to  the  destiny 
of  man  to  let  him  drift  when  he  was  doing  so  much  for 
his  humble  servitors  in  the  animal  world  !  A  genera- 
tion or  two  of  discussion  awakened  our  ancestors  to  the 
folly  of  their  inaction.  The  cry  of  reform  arose,  and 
the  feelings  of  the  whole  nation  were  aroused  by  the 
enthusiasts  for  progress  in  human  breeding.  Heredit- 
ary disease  and  the  tortures  it  inflicted  on  the  innocent 
were  used  to  wing  their  arrows  of  eloquence.  At  last 
there  grew  up  in  the  community  an  instinct  as  perempt- 
ory as  conscience,  condemning  the  marriage  of  men  and 
women  who  had  transmissible  diseases.  Public  opin- 
ion passed  into  a  moral  sense  in  one  or  two  generations, 
and,  before  a  century  had  gone,  all  the  diseases  that 
tended  to  pass  from  parent  to  child  had  disappeared 
from  every  class  but  the  poorest. 

"  Then  did  it  begin  to  dawn  upon  the  consciousness  of 
our  ancestry  that  the  worst  of  all  diseases  had,  though 
mitigated  in  virulence,  been  still  left  to  fester  in  the 
human  system.  What  was  the  use  of  curing  the  body, 
if  the  spirit  were  left  to  gather  to  it  and  transmit  foul 


Noola  403 

thought  and  emotion  ?  The  educated  and  responsible 
classes  came  to  feel  that  the  true  problem  was  yet  un- 
solved ;  nay,  that,  though  they  had  purified  their  sys- 
tems of  hereditary  diseases,  the  poor  and  neglected  and 
improvident  still  nursed  them  and  propagated  them  in 
the  meaner  suburbs  of  the  town  and  in  the  poverty- 
stricken  districts  and  villages  of  the  country.  Reformers 
applied  their  enthusiasm  to  educating  the  proletariat, 
and  it  seemed  at  first  as  if  lyimanora  were  about  to  be 
transformed.  The  annual  bill  of  criminality  was  re- 
duced, and  many  of  the  artisans  and  labourers  learned 
the  lesson  of  providence,  and  rose  into  the  class  of  the 
well-to-do.  Most  of  these  soon  admitted  the  physi- 
ological truths  of  heredity  into  their  sj-stem  as  part  of 
their  conscience,  and  if  they  had  disease  of  the  lungs  or 
heart  or  brain  or  nerve,  they  kept  from  marriage  and 
generation,  lest  it  should  be  transmitted. 

"  But  there  still  remained  the  foul  social  fringe  of 
the  community,  dabbled  in  the  mire  of  improvidence, 
pauperism,  hereditary  disease,  and  criminality,  and 
this  was  the  part  of  the  population  that  increased  most 
rapidl}'  still.  It  was  an  eating  cancer  in  the  body  of 
the  state.  Its  members  refused  education  for  them- 
selves and  their  children,  or,  if  they  took  it,  used  it  as 
a  new  and  refined  weapon  against  their  .self-restraining, 
law-abiding  neighbours,  or  against  the  commonweal  as 
a  whole.  The  true  source  of  all  the  infection  of  the 
state  was  still  uncleansed.  The  medical  rulers  who  had 
managed  aflfairs  so  well  for  several  generations  were 
unable  to  come  at  this  incurable  plague-spot.  What 
was  to  be  done  ?  The  most  drastic  remedies  were  pro- 
posed, and  had  their  various  advocates.  The  exterm- 
inators were  never  anything  but  a  small  party,  because 
of  the  general  sense  of  humanity  in  the  people.     The 


404  Riallaro 

mutilators  became  more  influential,  especially  amongst 
the  party  that  attached  themselves  to  the  doctors  ;  but 
they  never  approached  the  really  practical  sphere  of 
politics.  Both  continued  mere  parties  of  theorists,  ridi- 
culed and  sometimes  abhorred  and  execrated. 

"  At  last  there  came  a  great  religious  reformer  who 
spent  his  whole  energies  on  the  pauper  and  criminal 
skirts  of  society.  He  took  up  the  altruistic  motive 
and  element  in  human  nature,  and  set  it  in  complete 
antagonism  to  the  egoistic  and  individualistic.  He 
connected  it  with  the  idea  of  God,  and  taught  it  as  the 
utterance  of  the  Deit5\  At  first  he  implied  that  the 
utterance  was  given  through  all  nature,  but,  forced 
on  by  his  more  superstitious  followers,  he  had  finally 
to  announce  himself  as  the  special  mouthpiece  of  this 
divine  doctrine.  The  whole  country  was  soon  in  a 
blaze,  and  great  was  the  fervour  of  the  proletariat. 
Their  millennium  seemed  to  have  come.  They  marched 
about  in  great  bands  celebrating  his  praises.  Many  of 
them  had  their  dormant  powers  stirred  to  eloquence. 
Even  the  ruling  classes  looked  with  favour  on  the 
movement,  and  some  of  the  well-to-do  joined  in 
it. 

"  Then  came  the  inevitable  demand  for  practical 
doctrine  that  arises  in  the  career  of  every  successful 
prophet.  What  was  he  going  to  do  for  the  poor  and 
oppressed  ?  What  was  to  be  the  permanent  solution 
of  the  problems  of  pauperism  and  criminality  ?  The 
state,  it  was  true,  allowed  a  pittance  to  all  who  were 
completely  stranded  and  appealed  to  its  officers  ;  but 
there  was  the  brand  of  disgrace  on  the  dole  ;  every  man 
or  woman  who  took  it  slunk  away  from  the  sight  of 
others.  How  was  the  world  to  be  regenerated,  if  the 
horror  of  charitable  mechanism  was  not  to  be  removed  ? 


Noola  405 

There  could  be  no  millennium  without  stern  facing  of 
this  problem. 

"  He  took  the  plunge.  He  declared  for  equal 
division  of  the  wealth  of  the  country.  His  mission 
soon  became  a  crusade  against,  not  merely  the  wealthy, 
but  the  well-to-do.  All  goods  were  to  be  held  in  com- 
mon. No  more  was  there  to  be  inequality  of  position 
or  possession.  Property  was  a  siu,  to  be  prosperous 
and  provident  a  crime,  the  crime  of  theft  from  the  poor. 
The  only  possessions  they  should  allow  to  be  treasured 
up  were  the  spiritual  wealth  in  the  garner  of  God. 
Beyond  death  there  lay  the  only  property  that  was 
worth  having,  happiness  and  serenity  in  the  divine 
dwelling-place.  No  man  should  be  allowed  to  appro- 
priate or  lay  up  other  treasure.  God  would  look  after 
His  own  here  ;  and  none  should  want.  It  was  the 
rankest  folly,  if  not  blasphemy,  to  save  or  hoard  worldly 
treasure  against  the  needs  of  the  future. 

"  One  or  two  of  the  prosperous  amongst  his  followers 
came  and  laid  their  money  at  his  feet;  but  most  turned 
away  from  him,  when  they  heard  him  shatter  at  a 
word  all  they  had  toiled  for  night  and  day  during 
their  weary  lifetime.  He  denounced  them  as  faith- 
less and  worldlings,  unworthy  to  have  followed  in  his 
footsteps. 

"  The  governing  classes  took  alarm  and  watched  his 
movements  with  every  precaution  against  outbreak  ; 
but  the  posse  of  converted  highwaymen  and  brigands 
guarded  him  ;  and  it  was  said  that  not  a  few  secret 
murderers  were  in  the  band.  They  feared  that  he 
might  be  assassinated,  and  that  his  followers  might 
then  be  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  law.  He  ele- 
vated their  lives  for  the  time  by  the  religious  fervour 
he  infused  into  them.     Whosoever  saw  them  spoke  of 


4o6  Riallaro 

them  as  new  men.  It  is  true  that  he  had  adopted 
their  own  practical  creed,  antagonism  to  propert}',  and 
had  thus  attached  them  to  him  by  bonds  of  community; 
but  he  sublimated  it,  and,  as  long  as  the  throb  and 
transport  lasted,  raised  them  to  something  that  seemed 
his  own  religious  platform, 

"  There  were  symptoms  of  dissension  in  some,  when 
they  came  to  see  that  the  world  was  not  transfigured, 
whilst  others,  who  had  low,  vulpine  natures  to  begin 
with,  sneaked  round  his  camp  to  see  where  they  could 
betray  to  their  own  profit.  These  latter,  the  rich  hypo- 
crites and  macliiavellis  hired  as  assassins.  The  fall  of 
their  saviour  under  the  blow  of  a  midnight  dagger  at 
first  paralysed  the  new  enthusiasts  ;  but  soon  there 
came  the  full  revenge  of  all  martyrdoms.  The  doc- 
trine that  had  to  be  met  by  the  knife  of  the  assassin 
was  surel}'  strong.  Many  of  the  ardent  youth  of  the 
governing  classes  looked  into  it  and  found  it  noble. 
They  and  some  who  had  been  secret  followers  of  the 
popular  leader  openly  espoused  his  faith,  and  put  them- 
selves at  the  head  of  the  bewildered  proletariat. 

"  The  nation  was  suddenly  involved  in  civil  war. 
It  was  clear  that  the  one  side  had  nothing  and  the 
other  everything  to  lose.  If  the  new  socialists  won, 
then  the  rich  and  the  governors  would  be  reduced  to 
the  ranks  ;  all  they  had  gained  through  long  genera- 
tions would  have  to  be  surrendered  for  division.  It 
was  worth  a  struggle.  Indeed,  it  must  be  a  struggle 
for  very  life.  Their  worldly  cunning  came  to  their  aid. 
Most  of  them  were  above  the  mean  resources  of  treach- 
Qxy,  were  noble  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and  refused 
to  listen  to  anything  but  open  combat.  But  the  foxy 
diplomats  suborned  one  of  the  youthful  leaders  and 
made  him  their  agent  in  the  camp  of  the  enthusiasts  ; 


Noola  407 

they  sent  their  hirelings  in  to  join  the  enemy.  There 
was  in  the  first  battle  a  bold  front  offered  by  the  social- 
ists ;  but  the  traitors  deliberately  gave  way  and  fled, 
and  soon  the  raw  half-disciplined  artisans  and  labourers 
were  in  rout.  The  converted  thieves  returned  to  their 
plunder,  and  the  poverty-stricken  to  their  misery. 

"  Then  a  strange  thing  happened.  To  turn  the  flank 
of  the  new  religion  the  gilded  classes  adopted  it,  and 
began  to  worship  the  martyr  as  divine.  The  more 
sincere  of  his  followers  were  satisfied  with  the  change, 
and  settled  down  to  their  old  life  of  discontent  or  con- 
tent. The  world  took  shelter  under  the  beliefs  of  this 
hater  of  the  world.  His  creed  was  emasculated  of  its 
socialism  and  altruism  in  deed,  but  was  accepted  in 
word.  It  became  the  symbol  of  all  that  was  gorgeous 
and  tyrannical.  Magnificent  temples  rose  for  its  wor- 
ship ;  and  in  them  haughty  priests  oiEciated.  He 
who  had  been  the  apostle  and  prophet  of  the  poor  be- 
came the  god  of  the  rich  and  powerful.  The  new 
religion  had  left  the  nation  not  much  better  than  it 
had  been. 

"  One  good  thing,  however,  came  from  it  by  accident. 
It  was  long  discussed  what  was  to  be  done  with  the  ene- 
mies of  property,  theoretical  and  practical,  the  socialists 
and  the  thieves.  A  solution  was  furnished  by  one  of 
the  most  machiavellian  of  the  diplomats;  it  was  to  give 
them  as  much  as  would  be  their  share  were  the  wealth 
of  the  state  divided,  and  to  deport  them  to  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  fertile  islands  of  the  archipelago, 
Tirralaria.  It  was  hailed  as  the  salvation  of  the  state. 
Many  ships,  therefore,  were  prepared,  and  the  enthusi- 
astic believers  in  socialism  and  the  thieves  were  put 
on  board,  and  safely  disembarked  in  their  new  domain, 
with  the  threat  that,  if  any  of  them  attempted  to  land 


4o8  Riallaro 

again  in  Limanora,  they  would  be  at  once  put  to  death. 
Two  attempts  were  made  to  return  ;  but  they  were 
beaten  off.  The  expeditions  in  each  case  consisted  of 
the  better  class  of  socialists,  who  felt  the  grinding 
tyranny  of  socialism,  in  which  the  bad  are  put  on  the 
same  footing  as  the  honest  and  conscientious.  They 
were  each  too  small  to  force  a  landing  on  any  other 
island  ;  nor  would  their  fellow-islanders  allow  them  to 
come  back  to  Tirralaria.  They  could  not  live  always 
in  fallas ;  and  they  vanished  from  the  archipelago. 
It  is  the  current  tradition,  whence  it  comes  I  know  not, 
that  they  burst  through  the  circle  of  fog  into  the  outer 
ocean,  and  sailing  eastwards  got  footing  on  the  western 
shores  of  America  ;  but  it  is  so  many  centuries  ago 
when  either  secession  occurred  that  the  story  is  as  dim 
as  a  dream  of  our  infancy. 

"  The  experiment  was  successful  for  Limanora,  and 
supplied  the  new  political  formula  of  all  reform.  The 
state  w^as  well  rid  of  knaves  without  doing  them  any 
wrong.  Some  of  the  worst  blood  of  the  community 
had  been  drawn,  and  yet  the  system  had  not  been 
weakened  to  any  great  extent.  The  worst  of  the 
criminal  and  improvident  part  of  the  population  had 
been  expelled  ;  and  it  seemed  to  optimists  as  if  the 
Limanorau  millennium  were  about  to  appear.  Alas  for 
human  hopes  !  Though  the  virtuous  section  of  the 
people  had  had  their  hands  greatly  strengthened,  there 
were  still  tbe  more  gilded  forms  of  vice  to  cope  with. 
Ambition  and  love  of  war,  sensuality  and  falsehood, 
were  rooted  in  the  hearts  of  the  nation  that  had  seemed 
to  be  purified.  In  order  to  gain  their  ends  the  ambi- 
tious were  ever  appealing  to  force  and  stirring  up  civil 
war,  till  at  last  it  became  unbearable  by  the  peace- 
loving  majority,  who  put  into  office  sympathisers  with 


Noola  409 

their  view  of  life  and  demanded  expurgation  of  the 
loathed  pugnacity.  All  who  were  warlike  or  ambitious 
in  their  nature  or  who  had  come  of  warlike  or  ambitious 
ancestry  were  deported  to  Broolyi  ;  and  you  hav^e  seen 
the  result  of  their  civilisation. 

"  The  hypocrites  and  the  sensual  were  as  eager  as 
any  to  see  the  appeal  to  force  finally  extruded.  They 
thought  they  would  have  it  their  own  way  when  the 
swaggering,  hectoring,  military  men  were  gone  ;  but 
the  licentious  soon  found  themselves  isolated.  Their 
sins  more  readily  found  them  out.  Their  outrages  on 
what  was  honest  in  domestic  life  roused  more  sweeping 
and  clamorous  condenmation.  The  soldiers  and  bullies 
had  had  in  their  natures  a  side  that  was  close  to  their 
own  vice,  and  indulged  in  the  amorous  passion  to 
licence,  when  their  combativeness  or  ambition  did  not 
occup)'  the  stage  of  their  minds.  They  had  had  a 
sympathy  for  the  lechers,  and  often  protected  them 
when  public  opinion  had  risen  against  them,  knowing 
that  they  themselves  at  times  stood  in  need  of  similar 
protection  ;  and,  though  the  lechers  felt  more  kin  to 
the  hypocrites  in  their  often  demure  or  sly  and  crawl- 
ing temptation  of  women,  they  found  these  anything 
but  allies.  In  fact  the  machiavellis  joined  the  hue  and 
cry  against  them,  and  had  them  all  carefully  picked 
out  of  the  community  and  deported  with  their  share 
of  the  wealth  of  the  state  to  Figlefia. 

"  The  net  was  drawing  round  the  hypocrites  and 
liars,  though  they  thought  they  were  making  them- 
selves supreme  in  the  nation.  The  honest  and  loyal 
and  true  element  had  grown  predominant  ;  and  before 
a  century  had  passed,  the  false  had  followed  after 
the  lechers  ;  they  were  exiled  with  their  belongings 
to  Aleofane.     Unlike  the  socialists  and  thieves,  these 


4IO  Riallaro 

last  three  sets  of  exiles  made  no  attempts  to  return,  or 
to  enter  into  alliance  against  their  old  island.  They 
found  too  great  scope  for  their  respective  vices  in  their 
new  countries  to  desire  to  leave  them.  They  have 
prospered  according  to  their  own  lights,  and  delude 
themselves  into  the  belief  that  they  have  ideals  far  be- 
yond those  of  their  original  land  ;  Broolyi,  as  we  have 
seen,  sets  up  peace  as  its  motive  and  religion,  Figlefia 
matrimony  and  domestic  life,  and  Aleofane  truth. 
They  each  carried  awa}-  with  them  so  large  a  share  of 
the  wealth  of  Limanora  that  the}-  long  believed  her  too 
poor  to  be  worth  robbing.  So  they  let  her  alone.  In- 
dividuals for  a  time  made  efforts  to  land  ;  but  they 
were  taught  a  severe  lesson  ;  and,  since  the  invention 
of  the  storm-cone,  all  such  attempts  have  been  aban- 
doned, and  the  central  island  is  usually  spoken  of  as 
the  Land  of  Devils.  Each  of  these  now  ancient  nations 
adopted  the  principle  that  had  led  to  their  independ- 
ence, and  deport  alien  elements  to  other  and  smaller 
islands  of  the  archipelago.  One  large  group  they  call 
their  lunatic  asylum  ;  thither  they  send  everyone  who 
is  so  fanatical  in  his  enthusiasm  for  an  idea  or  social 
theory,  so  extreme  in  his  development  of  any  alien  vice 
or  virtue  as  to  be  a  danger  to  the  state  or  to  the  peace 
of  the  community.  Each  island  is  given  up  to  one 
type  of  monomaniacs  ;  and  it  is  an  agreement  on  the 
part  of  the  three  great  commonwealths  to  adhere  to  the 
classification  of  crazes.  It  is  thus  that  they  have  been 
able  to  remain  stable  and  united.  The  deportation 
polic}'  has  been  their  salvation,  for  it  is  the  quixotic 
enthusiasts  and  crotchet^'  extremists  that  constitute 
the  greatest  danger  to  the  solidarity  of  a  state  ;  but 
in  spite  of  their  great  advantages  and  the  adoption 
of   this  method  of  state  expurgation,   the}^  have  not 


Noola  411 

advanced   in  these  thousands  of  years,  during  which 
they  have  occupied  their  islands. 

"  In  after  ages  it  was  a  matter  of  regret  to  the  ad- 
vancing Limanorans  that  they  had  not  monasticised 
the  exiles.  It  was  useless,  they  knew,  to  adopt  what 
you  are  thinking  of,  a  missionary  system.  No  propa- 
ganda, however  successful,  ever  did  more  than  send 
the  old  beliefs  and  habits  below  the  surface  to  reappear 
in  the  new  generations.  Conversion  through  the  intel- 
lect or  the  feelings  is  only  skin  deep.  By  no  known 
process  can  the  century-long  growth  of  civilisation  or 
virtue  be  abbreviated  into  a  few  days  or  months  or 
years.  Selection  in  breeding  and  complete  change  in 
environment  are  the  only  true  missionaries,  and  with 
many  races  even  these  are  powerless,  so  deep  has  the 
virus  of  moral  retrogression  sunk  into  their  natures. 
The  best  propagandist  for  them  would  be  complete 
monasticism.  The  men  of  my  day  felt  deep  sorrow  for 
the  world  that  their  ancestors  had  not  sent  the  sexes 
of  the  deported  to  different  islands,  and  guarded  against 
the  mutual  approach  by  keeping  three  or  four  navies 
in  the  seas  between,  till  the  socialists,  the  warlike,  the 
sensual,  and  the  false  had  died  out.  It  would  have 
meant  the  greatest  vigilance  and  the  devotion  of  a 
large  section  of  the  people  to  naval  pursuits  for  almost 
a  century  ;  but  it  would  also  have  meant  the  disap- 
pearance of  this  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the  world, 
this  element  of  danger  in  the  archipelago.  The  evil 
was  irremediable  by  m}-  time,  for  any  attempt  to  re- 
move it  would  mean  conquest  and  bloodshed.  And  it 
had  become  not  merely  a  maxim  of  state  but  an  instinct 
born  in  ever}'  Limanoran  that  conquest  and  blood- 
shed are  more  than  futile,  are  ruinous,  that  they  de- 
stroy the  higher  nature  of  the  conciueror  or  destroyer. 


412  Riallaro 

To  enter  on  such  a  course  as  would  lead  to  the  ex- 
termination of  these  vicious  communities  would  be  to 
sow  again  in  our  own  the  seeds  of  still  greater  evils. 
Nothing  but  the  silent  obliterative  process  of  nature 
could  justify  itself  to  my  countrymen. 

"  There  was  another  reason  that  will  perhaps  seem 
to  5'ou  more  practical.  It  was  that  they  had  by 
no  means  finished  their  process  of  expurgation.  No 
longer  had  great  bodies  to  be  deported.  But  from  age 
to  age  an  individual  nature  even  in  the  most  carefully 
bred  and  trained  showed  atavistic  vice  or  weakness  ; 
and,  when  every  means  had  failed  to  cure  it,  the  indi- 
vidual had  to  be  exiled  ;  and  one  of  these  islands  was 
his  natural  home,  to  which  it  would  be  no  inhumanity 
to  carry  him  ;  for  there  would  he  find  choice  spirits 
and  natures  akin  to  his  own. 

"  This  was  my  case.  I  had  an  ancestry  that  had  in 
long  ages  gone  by  shown  warlike  proclivities,  but  in 
so  subordinate  and  unobtrusive  a  way  that  they  had 
not  been  banished.  In  the  intervening  generations 
their  pugnacity  had  by  means  of  selection  and  environ- 
ment wholly  disappeared  ;  but,  by  some  accident  of 
nature  or  miscalculation  on  the  part  of  the  lyimanoran 
sages  who  had  chosen  my  parents  and  surroundings, 
the  taint,  that  had  seemed  dead,  reappeared.  In  spite 
of  all  remedies  and  care,  I  grew  more  pugnacious, 
more  eager  to  excite  my  neighbours  to  war.  I  devoted 
my  talents  to  the  invention  of  weapons  and  war 
material.  I  made  myself  at  last  so  obnoxious  that  no 
alternative  was  left.  I  was  exiled  to  Broolyi,  and 
there  have  I  spent  the  long  years  since  in  efforts  to 
burn  the  tainted  spot  from  my  nature." 

The  cloud  had  fallen  upon  him  again,  as  he  ap- 
proached this  part  of  his  story.     He  persevered  to  the 


Noola  413 

end  ;  but  so  heavy  lay  the  sorrow  over  his  past  upon 
him  that  it  was  keen  anguish  to  speak  further  of  it.  I 
left  him  to  his  thoughts  and  went  on  deck. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  that  we  were  close  to  the 
shore,  and  that  on  it  stretched  out  a  large  and  hand- 
some cit}'.  I  looked  up  to  the  great  mountain  that 
overbrowed  it,  and  I  seemed  to  recognise  an  outline 
with  which  I  was  familiar;  could  it  be  Nookoo  ?  The 
name  brought  back  ni}'  subterranean  agony.  The  light 
streamer  of  mist  that  floated  over  its  top  showed  it  to 
have  inner  fires.  The  memory  seemed  almost  dream- 
like, and  perhaps  the  unfamiliarity  of  some  of  the 
details  was  owing  to  our  being  on  the  other  side  of 
Figlefia,  the  side  I  had  not  seen. 

Noola  followed  me  on  deck,  and  I  conjectured  that  a 
subject  like  this  might  distract  his  thoughts  and  dispel 
his  cloud.  I  called  his  attention  to  the  land,  and 
asked  him  if  he  knew  it.  It  was  Figlefia  ;  but  he 
seemed  to  be  astonished  at  something  in  the  scene. 
His  eye  was  fixed  on  the  city.  I  had  never  seen  it 
before,  and  noticed  nothing  unusual  in  its  appearance; 
but  he  saw  with  his  keener  and  farther  power  of  vision 
that  no  life  was  stirring  in  it.  Another  citj-  of  the 
dead  was  here.  The  dwellers  could  not  be  buried  in 
sleep  under  the  flashing  scrutiny  of  noon.  The  ship's 
glasses  could  not  help  him  to  solve  the  difficulty  ;  nor 
could  his  recollection  of  the  history  of  the  island  ;  he 
had  never  heard  of  such  devastating  plagues  in  Figlefia 
as  he  had  witnessed  in  Broolyi.  It  had  slavery  ;  but 
the  slaves  did  not  come  such  a  distance,  and  were  used 
as  sailors  and  oarsmen  in  the  passage  over-sea.  It  was 
women  that  the  lechers  had  mainly  kidnapped,  and  it 
was  these  would  have  their  revenge  ;  but  he  had  never 
heard  of  any  efficient  retaliation  on  the  part  of  their 
seraglios. 


4H  Riallaro 

It  could  !iot  be  an  ambuscade  to  seize  the  Daydream  ? 
He  alone  would  venture  on  shore  ;  he  would  not  hear 
of  my  joining  him  on  his  first  excursion.  When  he 
got  to  land,  I  could  see  him  move  cautiously  about  the 
streets  and  then  return  still  alone  to  the  beach.  He 
rowed  off,  and  invited  me  to  return  with  him. 

It  was  one  of  the  strangest  scenes  I  had  ever  wit- 
nessed ;  for  I  had,  because  of  my  illness  and  haste  of 
embarkation,  seen  little  of  the  plague-stricken  streets 
of  the  capital  of  Broolyi.  The  magnificence  of  the 
buildings  and  the  luxury  of  the  interiors  of  the  houses 
contrasted  with  the  loathsomeness  of  the  rotting 
corpses.  In  every  house  lay  some  dead,  generally  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  splendid  tapestries  and  the  most 
luxurious  couches  and  seats  ;  the  spraying  fountains 
of  scent  were  now  unable  to  overcome  the  stench  of  the 
dead  hands  that  had  set  them  fiowing  ;  but  Noola 
observed  that  it  was  only  in  the  houses  of  the  lawful 
wives  that  the  dead  lay,  men,  women,  and  children. 
The  seraglios  were  empty,  except  for  here  and  there 
the  stripped  corpse  of  a  man.  The  beautiful  slave- 
women  had  all  vanished  ;  and  there  was  not  one  of 
the  male  slaves  amongst  the  dead. 

When  he  had  mentioned  this  to  me,  in  a  flash  there 
came  upon  me  the  remembrance  of  my  saviour  from 
the  wreck  of  the  falla  and  my  guide  into  the  subter- 
ranean depths  of  Nookoo.  It  was,  I  saw  in  a  moment, 
the  ingenious  missile  he  had  told  me  of  that  had  accom- 
plished this  carnage  of  the  lecherous  tyrants.  The 
microbic  globule  in  the  hands  of  the  women  of  Swoon- 
arie  had  swept  the  Figlefians  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  infection  had  spread  from  each  adulterer  to  his 
wife  and  household.  How  and  whither  the  slaves  had 
escaped  it  was  impossible  to  find  out.     There  was  not 


Noola  415 

a  sign  of  life  in  the  whole  plague-stricken  city.  Doubt- 
less his  antiseptic  armour  and  antidote  had  been  found 
a  success.  Whether  he  and  his  people  would  follow  up 
the  victory  by  advancing  with  his  death-dealing  mis- 
siles against  the  other  islands  of  the  archipelago  re- 
mained to  be  seen.  That  their  old  lethargy  would 
overcome  them  when  they  returned  to  Swoonarie  was 
the  more  probable  result.  They  would  be  satisfied  to 
have  completed  the  revenge  for  the  wrongs  of  ages, 
and  to  have  freed  their  women  who  had  been  kid- 
napped, and  the  narcotic  atmosphere  of  their  native 
island  would  make  them  rest  and  postpone  the  dream 
of  universal  conquest.  It  was  unlikely  that  they 
would  occupy  the  island  of  Figlefia  or  the  caverns  of 
Nookoo,  that  had  been  tlieir  salvation  by  giving  them 
energy ;  for  there  were  too  many  agonised  memories  to 
lead  them  to  rest  there.  Their  own  lotos-eating  isle 
would  draw  the  slave  exiles  back  irresistibly,  and  hold 
them  within  it  for  ever  as  with  bonds  of  iron. 

Noola  would  not  let  me  remain  to  speculate  over 
the  tragedy  that  had  taken  place  or  the  romance  of 
conquest  that  might  follow  it.  There  was  danger  for 
us  in  the  pestilential  atmosphere  of  the  luxurious  city. 
He  hurried  me  back  to  the  beach  ;  but  in  passing  one 
of  the  ramparts  he  saw  some  of  the  catapults  that  he 
had  made  for  the  Broolyians,  capable  of  throwing  enor- 
mous weights  to  great  distances.  He  had  intended  to 
return  to  the  Isle  of  Peace  for  two  of  them,  as  soon  as 
he  had  allowed  sufficient  time  for  the  slaves  to  reach 
incapacity  by  intoxication  and  sanguinar}-  quarrels. 
This  discover}'  obviated  the  expedition.  He  took 
two  of  the  huge  machines  to  pieces,  and  sent  the  sailors 
to  carry  them  piecemeal  to  the  boats.  He  had  looked 
at  our  cannon  and  seen  that  they  would  be  dangerous 


41 6  Riallaro 

instruments  for  carrying  out  our  experiment  ;  he  had 
got  me  to  fire  one  of  them,  and  decided  that,  though 
they  had  the  power  to  carry  the  distance  he  desired, 
they  had  not  large  enough  bore  to  admit  of  our  enclos- 
ures, and  to  attach  our  cases  to  their  balls  might  lead 
to  failure  of  aim,  or  perhaps  fatal  injury  to  the  two 
passengers  in  the  missiles.  When  he  had  the  catapults 
on  board,  he  put  them  together  ;  then  he  made  two 
cases,  filled  them  with  material  equal  to  the  weight  of 
a  man,  and  shot  them  towards  the  shallower  surf  on 
the  beach.  They  plunged  into  the  waters  and  emerged 
in  the  ripple  along  the  shore.  He  had  them  brought 
back,  and  found  them  intact.  He  went  into  one  him- 
self, and  fastened  its  door  securely  within  so  that  no 
water  could  enter.  Then  he  instructed  us  to  fire  the 
man-missile  in  the  same  direction  as  the  previous  shots. 
The  result  was  the  same,  and  we  saw  him  open  the  lid 
and  walk  out  on  the  beach.  Similar  experiments  with 
myself  and  with  both  of  us  convinced  him  at  last  that 
everything  was  safe,  and  that  he  could  trust  to  the 
sailors  to  manage  the  affair  with  success. 

We  set  out  again  in  bright  sunshine,  and  left  be- 
hind us  the  deserted  city  of  the  plague.  The  next  day 
the  sun  suddenly  clouded,  and  looking  up  we  saw  that 
the  cloud  was  rapidly  moving  over  us  and  that  it  con- 
sisted of  birds.  We  could  distinguish  the  flash  of  the 
individual  wings  as  they  flickered  in  the  sunbeams 
that  broke  through  the  ranks  of  the  great  army.  We 
could  hear  far  off  the  harsh  or  musical  cries  of  the 
scouts  and  leaders,  or  the  answering  murmur  of  the 
embattled  masses.  At  times  we  could  see  battalions 
form  and  reform  in  their  flight,  the  van  open  its  ranks 
and  stretch  out  in  long  advancing  line,  and  the  rear 
ease  their  pace  in  order  to  cover  the  laggards.     It  was 


Noola  417 

a  marvellous  sight,  and  the  longer  we  listened  the 
more  distinctly  could  we  hear  the  clang  and  whizz  and 
creak  of  the  myriads  of  wings.  It  was  the  annual 
migration  northwards  of  the  antarctic  birds  along  the 
line  of  the  submerged  continent  ;  so  Noola  explained, 
A  large  contingent  for  long  ages  had  been  inclined  to 
settle  each  year  on  Limanora  ;  but  the  storm-cone  blew 
them  onwards  till  they  rejoined  the  main  body.  It  was 
the  storm-cone  that  was  directing  their  flight  now. 
He  showed  us  how  agitated  were  the  rear  battalions, 
how  uncertain  the  beat  of  their  wings,  how  irregular 
and  shifting  their  formation.  There  we  could  see  the 
strength  of  the  blast  bear  stragglers  out  of  their  course, 
as  they  jerked  their  wrings  and  uttered  harsh  cries  ; 
the  spasmodic  flash  of  the  sunshine  upon  them  was 
enough  to  show  that  they  were  bearing  the  brunt  of 
some  propelling  storm.  It  took  hours  to  clear  the  sky 
of  this  agitated  cloud  ;  but  we  set  our  course  by  its 
streaming  flight,  knowing  that  whence  they  were 
blown  was  our  destination. 

My  heart  bounded  as  I  saw  the  face  of  our  guide  after 
instructing  the  man  at  the  helm.  It  was  set  with 
strong  resolution,  and  the  eye  blazed  with  the  prayer- 
ful inspiration  of  a  saint  fixed  upon  his  deity.  He 
gazed  into  the  shimmering  light  ahead  with  an  inten- 
sity that  seemed  to  imply  some  object  dimly  descried. 
We  could  see  nothing,  nor  could  we  disturb  him  with 
question.  We  had  surrendered  the  whole  guidance  of 
the  ship  to  his  discretion.  On  the  morning  after,  we 
saw  what  had  magnetised  his  gaze  ;  the  gleaming  peak 
of  Lilaroma  with  its  streamer  of  cloud  upon  the  distant 
rim  of  sk}-.  He  knew  every  inch  of  the  shore  ;  for, 
when  it  came  clearly  into  sight,  he  turned  the  ship's 
head  directly  east,  leaving  the  fleckless  white  of  the 


41 8  Riallaro 

mountain  on  our  starboard.  We  seemed  indeed  to  be 
steaming  away  from  Limanora  ;  but  he  knew  his  own 
purpose,  and  we  let  him  alone.  Night  fell,  and  then 
we  veered  round  to  the  south,  and  faced  the  still 
gleaming  point  of  purity  upon  the  horizon.  Up  and 
up  it  rose  into  the  sky  as  we  sped  on  ;  and  yet  the 
storm  had  not  yet  burst  upon  us.  He  evidently  knew 
the  side  of  the  island  that  was  least  open  to  attack  and 
therefore  least  watched.  In  the  dim  underlight  of  the 
dark  moonless  night  we  could  discern  cliffs  rise  and 
snowless  levels  stretch  dim  and  mysterious.  Still  no 
sign  of  the  storm-cone,  though  we  could  see  the  line 
of  its  passage  black  round  the  snowy  shoulders  of  the 
giant  peak.  On  we  forged  as  swiftly  as  steam  could 
make  the  Daydream  fly.  Noola  paced  anxiously  from 
bow  to  stern,  from  the  look-out  man  to  the  wheel, 
never  relaxing  his  gaze  into  the  darkness.  It  was  a 
race  with  the  quickest  thoughts  upon  the  earth.  It 
seemed  as  if  we  were  about  to  impinge  upon  merciless 
crags,  we  seemed  so  near.  Still  we  held  on  with  un- 
abated speed.  We  were  almost  under  the  lee  of  the 
threatening  cliffs  ;  and  I  thought  that  in  a  few  minutes 
we  should  shut  out  the  sight  of  the  cone-path  round  the 
mountain.  With  the  suddenness  of  a  thunderbolt  the 
tornado  struck  us.  It  made  the  ship  stagger  ;  but 
everything  was  in  readiness,  every  rope  and  sail  tied 
up,  every  surface  that  would  impede  our  progress 
stowed  below  or  turned  so  that  it  should  not  meet  the 
force  of  the  wind.  We  seemed  to  stand  still  ;  I  thought 
that  we  were  even  receding  ;  but  she  was  cutting  into 
the  storm,  for  the  cliflf  in  front  of  us  broke  part  of  the 
force  of  it.  Still  the  cone  roared ;  still  the  yacht  made 
a  few  paces,  we  could  see  as  we  threw  anything  over- 
board.    He  knew  the  conditions  of  the  problem  ;  he 


Noola  419 

knew  that  the  people  were  certain  to  be  long  occupied 
with  directing  the  flight  of  birds  away  from  the  island  ; 
and  he  knew  the  section  of  the  coast  that  rose  highest 
and  would  give  us  smooth  water,  blow  the  cone  its 
fiercest.  We  took  some  hours  to  get  inside  the  ring  of 
broken  water  ;  and  it  was  still  dark.  He  then  turned 
her  head  to  the  north,  and  soon  we  saw  a  shelving 
beach  open  out  beyond  the  cliff.  He  had  the  catapults 
ready.  We  were  still  protected  by  the  crags  ;  but  in  a 
few  minutes  we  would  be  out  in  the  open,  subject  to 
the  full  fury  of  the  cone-storm.  He  gave  direction  to 
Burns  to  turn  her  head  inshore  full  speed  as  soon  as  we 
had  run  out  of  the  shelter,  and  shoot  off  the  man- 
missiles.  We  entered  our  cases  and  fastened  the  lids 
securely.  I  felt  myself  moved  and  laid  in  a  groove 
that  held  the  missile  firm.  I  heard  the  word  of  com- 
mand from  Burns  ;  and  that  was  almost  the  last  thing 
I  was  conscious  of  from  the  old  world  of  my  boyhood 
and  3'outh.  My  heart  leapt  into  my  mouth  as  I  felt 
the  concussion  in  starting  through  the  air.  I  seemed 
to  be  dashed  with  great  force  against  something  that 
was  cushiony,  and  at  that  moment  my  sense  of  the 
outer  world  and  of  myself  lapsed. 

POSTSCRIPT  TO   RIALLARO 

Our  narrator  vanished  as  abruptly  as  his  story  broke 
off  here.  Just  when  our  curiosity  had  been  whetted  to 
its  keenest  we  were  left  with  the  broken  thread.  We 
had  noticed  him  hanging  back  from  the  account  of  his 
intercourse  with  Noola.  His  tissues  had  grown  less 
transparent  as  he  had  proceeded  with  his  description 
of  the  various  islands.  He  had  become  accustomed 
to  our  food,  and  seemed  to  approach  nearer  to  our 


420 


Riallaro 


common  humanity.  We  came  to  take  greater  liberties 
with  him,  and  even  urged  him  to  proceed  with  his  nar- 
rative. We  had  become  so  interested  in  it  that  we 
would  willingly  have  abandoned  our  pursuit  of  gold 
for  days,  if  only  he  could  have  been  induced  to  con- 
tinue by  daylight.  The  glimmer  of  our  lamp  or  the 
dancing  glow  of  our  fire  threw  his  face  into  shadow, 
and  seemed  to  give  him  confidence;  and  even  when 
storm  and  rain  drove  him  in  from  the  bush  he  resisted 
our  persuasions  as  long  as  daylight  lingered.  He 
would  lie  so  still  that  we  were  often  afraid  that  he  had 
died  or  fallen  into  a  trance. 

As  he  came  to  his  story  of  Noola's  exile,  this  re- 
luctance increased  even  when  the  flickering  shadows 
of  the  lamp  or  fire  sheltered  him.  Our  rough  methods 
of  trying  to  bring  him  to  book  only  made  him  shrink 
farther  into  himself,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  pro- 
longed and  stormy  spring  I  fear  that  we  should  never 
have  reached  the  natural  close  of  his  story,  his  exit 
from  Riallaro.  With  his  last  word  came  bright  sun- 
shine and  clear  weather  ;  and  he  disappeared  as 
abruptly  as  he  had  come. 

Godfrey  Sweven. 


SONS  OF  THE  MORNING 

By  Edkn  Phillpotts,  author  of  "  Children  of  the  Mist," 
etc.  With  frontispiece.  8°.  .  .  .  $1.50 
Special  Autograph  Edition.    Limited  to  1000  copies 

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*'  Here  we  have  not  only  literature,  but  we  have  character  draw- 
ing, humor,  and  descriptive  powers  that  Blackmore  only  equalled 
once,  and  that  was  in  '  Lorna  Doone.'  .  .  .  He  knows  the 
l)eart  as  well  as  the  trees ;  he  knows  men  and  women  as  well  as  he 
knows  nature,  and  he  holds  them  both  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand." — 
Chicago  Tribime. 

CHILDREN  OF  THE  MI5T 

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R.  D.  Blackmore,  the  author  of  "Lorna  Doone,"  said  of  this: 
■*  Knowing  nothing  of  the  writer  or  of  his  works,  I  was  simply  as- 
tonished at  the  beauty  and  power  of  this  novel.  But  true  as  it  is  to 
life  and  place,  full  of  deep  interest  and  rare  humor  and  vivid  descrip- 
tions, there  seemed  to  be  risk  of  its  passing  unheeded  in  the  crowd, 
and  rush,  and  ruck  of  fiction.  .  .  .  Literature  has  been  enriched 
with  a  wholesome,  genial,  and  noble  tale,  the  reading  of  which  is  a 
pleasure  in  store  for  many." 

HILDA  WADE 

A.  Woman  with  Tenacity  of  Purpose.  By  Grant  Allen, 
author  of  "  Miss  Cayley's  Adventures,"  etc.  With 
98  illustrations  by  Gordon  Browne.     8°        .     $1.50 

"  Mr.  Allen's  text,  as  in  all  his  writings,  is  singularly  picturesque 
and  captivating.  There  are  no  commonplaces,  and,  although  the 
outcome  is  perfectly  evident  early  in  the  story,  the  reader  will  find 
his  attention  chained.  .  .  .  It  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  summer 
books,  and  as  an  artistic  bit  of  light  reading  ranks  high.  It  is  a  pity 
that  such  a  vivid  imagination  and  high-bred  style  of  discourse  are  no 
longer  in  the  land  of  the  living  to  entertain  us  with  further  stories  of 
adventure." — Boston  Times. 

THE  SECRET  OF  THE  CRATER 

(A  Mountain  Moloch.)  By  Duffield  Osborne,  author 
of  "  The  Spell  of  Ashtaroth,"  etc.  Hudson  Libraiy, 
No.  45.     12°,  paper,  5octs.  ;  cloth  .     $1.00 

"  The  author  is  a  novelist  with  a  genuine  gift  for  narrative.  He 
knows  how  to  tell  a  story,  and  he  is  capable  of  conceiving  a  plot  as 
wild  as  was  ever  imagined  l)y  Jules  Verne  or  Rider  Haggard.  .  .  . 
The  reader  will  find  himself  amused  and  interested  from  the  first 
page  to  the  last." — N.   Y.  Herald. 


<j.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  and  Londoa 


%om  Setters  oi  a  ptxtsixlatt 

By  Myrtle  Reed.     12°,  gilt  top      .         ,         .         $1.75 

"  Miss  Reed's  book  is  an  exquisite  prose  poem — words  strunrr  on 
thought-threads  of  gold — in  which  a  musician  tells  his  love  for  one 
whom  he  has  found  to  be  his  ideal.  The  idea  is  not  new,  but  the 
opinion  is  ventured  that  nowhere  has  it  been  one-half  so  well 
carried  out  as  in  the  '  Love  Letters  of  a  Musician.'  The  ecstacy  of 
hope,  the  apathy  of  despair,  alternate  in  these  enchanting  letters, 
without  one  line  of  cynicism  to  mar  the  beauty  of  their  effect." — 
Rochester  He7-ald. 


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volume  of  a  musician's  love  letters  was  taken  up,  a  natural  inference 
being  that  Miss  Reed  could  scarcely  hope  to  repeat  her  first  success. 
Yet  that  she  has  equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  the  interest  of  her  earlier 
letters  is  soon  apparent.  Here  will  be  found  the  same  delicate 
fancy,  the  same  beautiful  imagery,  and  the  same  musical  phrases 
from  well-known  composers,  introducing  the  several  chapters,  and 
giving  the  key  to  their  various  moods.  Miss  Reed  has  accomplished 
her  purpose  successfully  in  both  series  of  the  letters." — N.  Y.  Times 
Saturday  Review. 

gixe  giary  of  a  gr^antjev 

By  Alice  Dew-Smith,  author  of   "  Soul  Shapes,"  "  A 
White  Umbrella,"  etc.     12°,  gilt  top     .         .         $1.50 

"  A  book  to  be  read  as  a  sedative  by  the  busy  and  overworked. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  England,  and  is  bathed  in  a  peculiarly  English 
atmosphere  of  peace  and  leisure.  Contains  much  domestic  philos- 
ophy of  a  pleasing  if  not  very  original  sort,  and,  incidentally,  n«  lit- 
tle good-natured  social  satire." — N.   V.  Evening  Fost. 

"  This  is  a  book  of  the  meditative  order.  The  writer  expresses 
her  thoughts  in  a  manner  that  is  a  delightful  reminder  of  '  Reveries 
of  a  Bachelor '  of  Ike  Marvel.  ...  In  parts  it  is  amusing,  in 
the  manner  of  Mark  Twain's  '  Sketches.'  The  combination  of 
humor  and  sensible  reflection  results  to  the  reader's  delight." — 
Albany  Times  Union. 

"  '  The  Diary  of  a  Dreamer  '  is  a  charming  treatment  of  the  every- 
day topics  of  life.  As  in  '  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor '  and  '  Elizabeth 
and  her  German  Garden,'  we  find  an  engaging  presentation,  from 
the  feminine  point  of  view,  of  the  scenes  and  events  that  make  up 
the  daily  living.  The  '  Diary  '  is  one  of  those  revelations  of  thought 
and  feeling  that  fit  so  well  into  the  reader's  individual  experience." 
— Detroit  Free  Press. 


Q.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  and  London 


JC0AV 


